Drago[knit]fly

Prepping for the Little Chicklet

2010-09-14T13:18:00.000-04:00

The past couple weeks, months even, I've been crafting away so that when the new baby decides to make her appearance (due date's tomorrow, yet no sign of baby) she'll be greeted into the world with a healthy bounty of handmade goodies.

Sixth Time's a Charm Quilt

While I know babies don't use quilts on their cribs (Alice still doesn't use more than a muslin blanket and she's approaching two!), I can't imagine not making a quilt for the little baby chicklet.

When I made Alice's quilt, I conformed to the overall color scheme for her room. This time, I let myself loose with colors. I figure the chicklet will most often use the quilt during tummy time or any time she's on the floor and I don't want her covered in dog hair and what baby doesn't love bright, fun patterns during playtime? So, I settled on some fabrics from Michael Miller's Hedgehog and the Big E collections and some coordinating Kona Cottons.

In line with my recent AMH obsession, I opted for a quilt pattern in her most recent book, Handmade Beginnings. LOVE this book! Shocking, right?

Love the pattern, although I have to admit my one pain point was wasting so much fabric. I'm not sure it's possible to avoid doing so, but I now have a stack of pieced fabric leftover. Of course, I could make the scraps into other smaller projects, but more likely they'll just sit collecting dust amongst the rest of my fabric stash. If I had to go back, I would still make the quilt so I guess I have no place to complain.

Fabric: A mix of Michael Miller's Hedgehog and the Big E, Kona Cotton in Lime, Ash, and Plumberry.
Pattern: Sixth Time's a Charm found in Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner.

Polka Dot Mobile

When I saw this tutorial, I knew this would be the little chicklet's mobile. I loved the unlimited possibilities for color and fabrics and the chance to incorporate some beading techniques. And of course, spraypaint. Who doesn't love spraypaint?

I tried to keep to a somewhat limited color palette of magenta, sky blue, olive green, gold, red and cream and used fabric scraps from Heather Ross, Amy Butler, Michael Miller, Alexander Henry, and Anna Maria Horner. And the spray paint is "hot pink" although not at all what I'd consider hot pink. More of a bubble gum pink. Not only was this project a great way to use up scraps that I thought would sit in my scrap bin until I eventually pitched them in a freak cleaning spree, but it was also a fun archive of previous sewing projects. Like a look down memory lane.

Many more baby things in progress or recently completed! Hopefully, I'll have time to blog about them before the baby arrives. Otherwise, all bets are off and I'll see you in 2011. Kidding. Sort of.

Museum Tunic

2010-08-27T15:15:00.000-04:00

I’ve been obsessed with all things AMH these days. Pretty much anything that pops up on her site, I have to make. So, when I saw this dress on her website a few months back, it wasn’t long before I had some Little Folks Dobby in my cart. I’d been eyeing this particular fabric, but didn’t pull the trigger because I couldn’t think of a pattern worthy of the fabric.

I did end up modifying the pattern a bit to make it more wearable for me. I don’t own a slip and knowing me, it would take me a year before I actually bought one. To remedy that, I lined the dress with some straw lining material. In a perfect world, I would have lined it with some coordinating solid voile, but that’s a little rich for my budget, so I opted for some regular ol’ lining material from Joann.

I also shirred the waistline instead of zig-zag stitching elastic just because I thought it would be easier.

Lining and Shirring

I didn’t intend to wear this dress while pregnant, but surprisingly enough it fits – even at nearly 38 weeks pregnant! I’m not sure it’s all that flattering as maternity wear, but really what’s flattering on a pregnant woman two weeks shy of her due date?

Of course when I was modeling it for J and informed him the dress was more for after the baby arrives, he asked a bit sheepishly “how big do you plan on being after the baby was born.” I couldn’t help but laugh. Like I’m hoping to staying 30 pounds heavier! I had to explain that part of the beauty of this dress is its flowy nature.

Because the dress only requires 1.5 panels of the fabric but I had to purchase all 2 panels, I used the leftover ½ panel for a little scarf (still to be photographed).

Pattern: Museum Tunic

Fabric: 2 panels Little Folks Dobby, Anna Maria Horner and <2 yards Generic Lining Material

Cuddly Blanket

2010-07-23T07:15:00.003-04:00

First of all - Happy Birthday, Mom! Hope you enjoy your special day!

It’s rare that I can receive fabric and cut into it within a day or so of receiving it. I like to gaze it from afar, pet it, imagine all the good times we’ll have – you know, normal stuff. Not this fabric. I couldn’t wait to slice into it and make it into something. It helps when you have the perfect project in mind. In this case, Anna Maria Horner’s swaddling blankets. My one concern about jumping in – I didn’t prewash my fabrics and I have little experience working with either flannel or voile so I’m unsure of the shrink factor.

Working with the flannel and voile is like working with butter and um, melted butter? Both so decadent, both so perfect to have cuddle your baby’s perfectly soft newborn skin. As proof, when I opened the package Alice quickly snatched a piece of the voile and proceeded to wrap herself up in it. It appears I’ll be making a version for older sis, too.

I followed Anna Maria’s directions on her site – my favorite kind of directions – quick and to the point. I’ve made other similar blankets with multiple-page tutorials and they take me forever because if directions are provided, I’m compelled to follow along, step by step.

The project flew by until I suddenly stalled out on the binding. Voile is some slippery stuff, my friends. If I can give you any advice, pin, then pin even more, and then pin even more. Your blanket should look like an acupuncture patient. And then pin some more. Seam ripping through voile is not pretty and you want to avoid it at all costs.

The finished project – I had to use every ounce of self-restraint to fold up the blanket and not bring it to bed with me last night. So soft, so light and airy. It’s like mousse in blanket form. Luckily, I bought enough fabric to make two. I think they will be getting lots of use.

Of course, when I showed J he had to bring up the one fact that I was trying to shove into the back of my brain. That while, yes, the blanket is lovely and soft, it will inevitably get covered in spit up, pee, etc. Well, if my child is going to poop on something, I guess I’d prefer it to be soft?

I also made a couple bibs, loosely following this pattern from sewshesews.wordpress.com. I eliminated the batting and used a piece of terrycloth for the backing. Great pattern – easy to follow and Jaime’s created so many inspiring versions!

Two projects down, manymanymany more to go!

A Timeline for a Quilt

2010-07-22T15:32:00.003-04:00

February 2009 – buy fabric.

February to Summer – pet fabric, envision gorgeous quilts, remain paralyzed in fear of cutting beautiful fabrics. Scour flickr for quilt inspiration.

Summer – Select quilt pattern. Engineer how to make quilt. Cut bazillions upon bazillions of little triangles. Get sick of cutting.

Fall to Winter – Forget about quilt.

Spring – remember fabric half cut for quilt. Dig out pieces. Remember plan. Finish cutting other bazillion triangles. Start piecing. Interest in other projects surpasses interest in quilt.

June/July – In fit of motivation, finish piecing quilt.

July – Momentum continues! Quilt top finished, sandwiched, bound, and quilted.

Now the real question is how do all you flickrites manage to post freshly finished quilts on a weekly (or less!) basis?

Pattern: No real pattern. I found a couple photos of kaleidoscope quilts on flickr and fell in love. I bought a 45 degree triangle quilting template, but halfway through the project ordered a kaleidoscope-specific template.

Notes:

We had some guests over while I was finishing up the quilt top and someone gave me what I consider the ultimate compliment – “wow, this looks like something you’d find in anthropologie!”

I really wanted to play with hot pink as an accent color, but knew there would be no chance J would be cool with a hot pink bedspread, even in miniscule amounts. So, I went with red. I still would prefer hot pink, but I’m digging the red.

Overall, I’m in love with the quilt. I had some moments of doubt during its construction – things like whether or not the gray was dark enough, whether the colors would achieve the look I was striving for, whether my imprecise piecing would be evident, etc.—but now that it’s done, I love it.

I’m usually drawn to the boldest prints and colors in each fabric collection, which are gorgeous on their own, but often too distracting in quilts. I ~~forced myself~~ made a strong effort to choose some small-scale prints and introduce a level of simplicity with the quilt. Hence, all the 45 degree triangles are the same print in each block. I think employing some restraint worked out.

Fabrics:

A mix of:

Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks

Amy Butler’s Lotus

Heather Bailey’s Pop Garden

Kona Ash

With this out of the way, I can work on some little projects for the little chicklet, set to arrive in 8 short weeks!

Quilting:

Because this is a queen-sized quilt, I kept things simple. I stitched a line on either side of each block seam and then through the center of the block, both vertically and horizontally.

My new crafty digs

2010-07-21T15:34:00.009-04:00

When I got pregnant with Alice, we converted our office/craft room into her room. My sewing machine and piles of associated sewing / craft stuff was relegated to the guest room and closet. While picking up a sewing machine and carrying it downstairs to the dining room doesn’t seem like that overwhelming a task, I dread it and will knit a sweater or bake ten pies before I carry the machine down a flight of stairs.

Of course when I do drag the machine downstairs, I take over the dining room and often spill into the kitchen, much to the chagrin of my clean-freak husband. And of course since Alice was born and we have another on the way, there are eleventy billion cute little baby projects that I must sew. During my maternity leave, I spent hours sewing during Alice’s marathon newborn naps, the sewing machine humming along while she slept peacefully in her little swing. Sewing these days requires much more planning and usually only takes place during the hours between Alice’s bedtime and my bedtime, which these days aren’t too far apart. The occasional times I motivate to drag out my sewing machine, I try and sew everything sewy floating around in my brain so I can avoid carting all my materials back and forth. Mostly I sew all small projects for Alice.

Now that we have another baby on the way, Alice will move into the more spacious guest room, the new baby into Alice’s room, and my ever-growing stash of craft supplies will again be relocated. Instead of the dragging out my sewing machine every time I want to sew, l’ve been bargaining with J on what’s an appropriate place. Setting up a sewing area in the living room? Not okay with him. Plopping my sewing machine on a cardboard box in our leaky basement? Not cool with me. We’re working through it and eventually I~~’ll get my way~~ we’ll make a perfectly amicable compromise with which both of us can live. As a bit of an interim solution, I set up camp in our 3-season porch. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. Not only do I get to sew semi-outside, I’m far enough from view that my sewing stuff doesn’t take over the house. And even on the hottest of days, a little breeze through all the windows and a ceiling fan make everything tolerable, if not enjoyable.

I’m still working out where I’m going to store everything once I’m officially kicked out of the guest room and my stash moves into the basement (where all the scary things live!) and where my sewing area will move once it gets too cold to sew outside. Which, in New England is in like a month and a half!

Those of you with tight spaces – how do you handle it? Do you have a sewing nook or do you set up and break down every time you sew? Or worse, do you just not sew?

Laptop Sleeve Tutorial

2010-05-28T20:12:00.003-04:00

I’ve spent the last year picking up those foam laptop sleeves and inevitably putting them back down because I knew I could make something just as functional and infinitely more fun. Of course, that year saw my laptop getting tossed in and out of my weekender, me fearing that I would damage it, but the worry never reaching the point where I actually did anything to remedy the situation.

Until this week.

Of course, I didn’t have the foresight to photograph the process, but hopefully my instructions will provide enough direction should you decide to make one for yourself. And I have a feeling I’ll be making more of these in the future.

You'll need:
-Home Dec Weight Fabric - You'll need enough yardage to make the pieces described below. For my netbook, a fat quarter was just enough fabric. I used an Echino fabric from a couple seasons back.
-Batting - I used fusible fleece. 1/4 yard.
-Lining - I used Michael Miller's Organic Cotton Fleece leftover from a blanket I made Alice. Any flannel or soft fabric will work fine.
-Velcro

I dug out some favorite home-dec weight fabric for the exterior and some super soft cotton fleece for the lining. I went so far as to buy a yard of high-density foam to serve as the middle layer, but aborted that plan before I even pulled out my scissors. Instead, I opted for some fusible fleece.

Step 1 – Measure your laptop and determine how to cut fabric.
Front & Back Panels = (L+H+1) x (W+H+1). Cut two each of exterior fabric, lining fabric, and batting.
Flap = (L + 1) x (H + 1). Cut one of exterior fabric, lining, and batting.

Step 2 – If using fusible batting, iron to lining fabric.

Step 3 – Create flap.
-Sew one long strip of Velcro (scratchy side) on long side of lining fabric, one or two inches from the bottom. You can do this step before ironing on the batting, too.
-Pin fabric and lining right-sides together. Sew all sides, except top, together. Turn right-side out. Press. Top stitch around three sewn sides. Set aside.

Step 4 - Sew flap to exterior fabric.
-At unfinished edge, center and pin flap to long edge of exterior back panel. Sew. Keep in mind, flap will be a couple inches shorter than exterior panel.

Step 5 - Sew velcro to exterior front fabric.
- Cut two 3 or 4 inch strips of velcro (soft side). Pin, perpendicular from the top of the fabric, a couple inches from each side and an inch or two from top of fabric.
- Sew in place.

Step 6 - Attach exterior panels.
- With right sides together and velcro matching up, pin and sew the two short sides of the exterior panels. Do not sew top or bottom. Turn right-side out.

Step 7 - Attach lining panels.
- With right sides together, pin and sew the two short sides of the exterior panels. Do not sew top or bottom.

Step 8 - Sew strap
- Take a strip of fabric at least a couple inches wide by at least 8 or 10 inches long. Fold in half, right sides together. Sew along long edge only. Turn right side out. Press. Top stitch along each edge. I usually add a few extra top stitching lines for some added flair.

Step 9 - Sew lining to exterior
- Place interior inside of lining. Match up seams. Right sides should be facing each other.
- Pin along top. Along the side seam of your choice, fold your strap in half, raw edges together, to make a loop. Loop side down, tuck the strap in between the lining and exterior layers. The two raw edges of your strap should match up with the raw edges of your lining and exterior. Sew. A walking foot is helpful to sew through all the layers.
- Turn right side out. Pull lining so it is hanging outside of exterior. Pin and sew along bottom seam. A serger makes a nice, clean seam. If you don't have a serger, a zig-zag stitch and trim will do the trick.
- Tuck lining back in. Top stitch along top seam.

Step 10 - Admire finished product.

Let me know if anything doesn't make sense. Sewing is kind of an iterative process for me, it's difficult for me to remember all the steps unless I keep track as I go along. I should remember that for next time, huh?

Tea Party Sundress

2010-05-11T14:19:00.001-04:00

This Oliver + S pattern has been sitting and waiting for the greater part of a year now. Upon realizing that Alice was about to grow out of the largest size, I decided I need to finally make her a dress. It helped that my super-awesome husband bought me a serger for Christmas (after years of heavy hints and emailed links) that I was itching to use. For those of you wondering, yes, I begged and pleaded for a serger and let it sit for months before playing around with it. That’s a story for another day.

Anyway, I fumbled through my modest fabric stash for something suitable and kept going back to a couple half-yards from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary line. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough yardage. I don’t know what took me so long, but eventually I realized I could mix up the skirt fabrics a la the hippie dresses I made during my younger days.

I always overestimate the time it takes to sew clothing, especially with a serger. It took me twice as long to cut the fabric than it did to sew the pieces together! The result is a cute little springy dress that will hopefully fit her through summer. I cut and started the bloomers, but never finished. Alice is almost always in a cloth diaper, which are cute enough on their own, so I’m not too concerned about it.

Alice has plenty of room to grow wider, but the dress is already at her knees. I should have planned better considering she’s usually around the 30th percentile for weight and 80th for height. Oh well, at least we know Baby Girl number 2 can get some use out of it, too!

Pattern: Oliver + S, Tea Party Sundress
Fabric: Joel Dewberry, Aviary. Amy Butler Quilting Solids.

Never say never

2010-04-19T11:27:00.002-04:00

After I made 3 baby blankets over the course of one summer, I had my head examined and subsequently swore off knitting blankets forever. Sure enough, the next summer J talked me into making one more for his boss. Fine. One more, but never again. I kept this promise for awhile. I didn’t even make a blanket for my own kid! Luckily, I have good friends who didn’t let Alice go without wooly blanket goodness.

Zoe gives the blanket her seal of approval

Fast forward to late last summer when a friend announced her second pregnancy and asked that I make her new baby a blanket. During the Summer ‘o Baby Blankets, I knit her first child a baby blanket and it had become one of her beloved blankies. How could I refuse making baby #2 a blanket? I’d rather knit something huge and boring if it’s going to be loved than something quick and entertaining if it will collect dust somewhere. Repeating this to myself over and over helped me actually believe it.

Close up of the stitch pattern

So, I broke my promise to myself and cast on for another blanket. After making 4 Big Bad Baby Blankets, I decided it was time to move on to another pattern and selected a modified version of the Organic Baby Wrapper. With just a couple extra repeats, it was a perfect blanket-size and worked perfectly with my go-to baby yarn, Blue Sky Organic Cotton.

Details:
Raveled
Pattern: Organic Baby Wrapper
Yarn: Blue Sky Organic Cotton, 3.5 hanks in Nut
Needles: Size 9 Addis
Mods: Larger needles. Added two repeats to the width. Only used one color yarn. Knit until it was blanket size.

The entire blanket in all its glory. Ignore the mess, please.

Surprisingly enough, knitting the blanket was painless. Turns out adding a pattern instead of row upon row of stockinette can really improve the blanket-making process. Who knows, maybe I’ll even make one for my new baby? Let’s not get too crazy, though.

That’s right, I’m pregnant again! With another girl! We could be more excited that come September Alice will have a new sister. Bring on the next round of baby knitting!

A new hat for Alice

2010-03-02T11:36:00.004-05:00

Unfortunately, the adorable little owl hat I made Alice this past fall fit her for all of fifteen seconds. And because she tears off her hats seconds after I put them on, she only wore the hat for about five seconds. Despite her loathing of headwear, I can’t let her outside in the New England winter without something.

So, I found the softest and non-itchiest yarns in my stash and cobbled a little hat together. Voila!

Pattern: Kim’s Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (after all these years, this book is still a staple for me)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Rhodesian, Noro Silk Garden in ___ (leftover from my still unblogged Clapotis)
Needles: Size 9 Addis
Comments: This has become my go-to toddler hat pattern. It works up quickly on big needles and worsted weight yarn and the pattern offers a myriad of styles to make the hat your own.

Amazingly, Alice seems to really love this hat. She'll wear it if it's cold enough and when she won't wear it, she still loves to carry it around with her.

Alice caught mid-chew

I just ordered yarn for the first time in a year and a half (aren’t I such a good destasher?), so I should have some exciting projects on the needles soon.

Happy Birthday!

2009-12-08T15:04:00.007-05:00

A couple weeks back (I'm a little behind), we celebrated Alice’s 1st birthday with a “Alice in One-Derland” party. (I obviously had no alternative but to use this theme this year, right?)

I never thought I’d be the type of mother who goes overboard and treats their kid’s first birthday party like a wedding, but let’s face it, I’m exactly that mother. I did promise J I wouldn’t go too wild and I think I was successful in keeping that promise. I mean, she only had one outfit change! Well, two if you count when I stripped her down to a onesie after cake. I scaled back. Really, I did.

Outfit #1. Obviously Alice had to dress up like Alice!

Outfit #2 - The Handmade Outfit

I made her crown, t-shirt and tutu. This one I’ll actually create an individual post for, I think.

Outfit #3 - The Post-Cake Outfit

More important than any decorations or fancy fondant cakes (made from scratch, thankyouverymuch) or a Mexican feast (what? Alice didn’t eat pork carnitas and tacos in Wonderland?) was that Alice got to spend her first birthday surrounded by people who love her. That, and she got covered in pink icing. No birthday party is complete without some cake smashing.

The cake:

The smashing!

Alice had her own giant cupcake cake!

After cake time, Alice could be seen running all over the place in a buttercream-induced sugar haze. I can assure you she had a blast. And if she could talk, I’m sure she would have complained about a headache the next morning.

Party on! I gave her regular cake this time. Can you tell? I think she's enjoying her party!

Opening Presents

HANDMADE DETAILS

Of course, the party was replete with handmade details…I could probably write a post for each one of these things, but I know well enough that that will never happen, so this will have to do.

Invite - Front & Back

Monthly Photo Banner

Birthday Banner

My favorite decoration, by far. I wanted to create something gender neutral so that we could use if over and over again for everyone’s birthdays. So, it’s more of a family birthday banner than an Alice birthday banner. Fabrics are a mix of Amy Butler, Sandy Henderson, Heather Ross, and Alexander Henry.

Party Favors

I kept in theme with eat me and drink me favors.

"Drink Me" Hot Chocolate Favors

I used this recipe

I designed the labels in illustrator and printed on cardstock.

"Eat Me" Talking Flower Sugar Cookies

Royal Icing Recipe & Tips

The Cake

I was a little nervous that I bit off more than I could chew with the fondant, but it all worked out. I decided to make the fondant from scratch because I detest the plasticy chemical flavor of the Wilton pre-made stuff.

Marshmallow fondant Recipe

Cake Recipe: Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party cake (with a few modifications – eliminated all lemon flavor and fillings.)

Happy Birthday, Alice!

A Tale of Two Cakes

2009-11-16T15:24:00.005-05:00

With Alice’s birthday quickly approaching, I have cakes on the brain. Alice reaps the benefits of a family scattered with two parties – one yesterday here in CT and one next weekend in NJ for my family.

The Healthy Cake

Make fun of me all you want, but I made Alice her very own special (and healthy!) mini birthday cake. Somehow the ingredient list (carrots, apple juice concentrate, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, etc.) and the notable absence of sugar didn’t set off my panic button that I was flirting with baking disaster. It didn’t fully hit me until I tried a bite of one of the extra mini cakes. And promptly spit it out….then rinsed out my mouth. How could I expect Alice to eat this? It was more of a Metamucil substitute than birthday cake!

Unfortunately, I had already started on the grown-up cake – a decadent, fudgy confection laced with coffee – way too rich, caffeinated, and allergen-laden for Alice’s first cake. Plus, I had invested so much time into her cake what with shredding carrots, boiling them in apple juice concentrate, then pureeing the mixture, etc., I was averse to tossing it. I justified feeding her the “cake” (I use this word loosely) because the cream cheese icing (recipe from same website) I made was actually quite tasty. I do have to admit I was a little nervous. If she refused her cake, I would have been bummed there were no 1st birthday cake smash pictures!

It turns out that I don’t know my daughter or my taste buds are off because get this – she actually ate the cake. And showed her appreciation by smashing it in her hair, all over the floor, her shirt, etc. For that, the dog was also appreciative.

While Alice was intrigued by the cake at first – as evidenced by her eyes lighting up and her playing with the icing – she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it… Was this a new toy? It’s on my highchair….should I eat it? Why is everyone looking at me? Daddy stepped in and gave her a lick of icing, which was all it took. Within moments, she dove head first into her cake.And then she proceeded to eat her cake…um, like a dog. Who knew watching your child eat cake like a dog could be the cutest. thing. ever?

I don’t mean to sound so down on the cake, obviously Alice liked it! I think my problem is that despite all the healthy ingredients, I expected a traditional moist and decadent carrot cake. I think the cake would benefit from some unhealthy and baby-unfriendly ingredients like regular flour and walnuts, but then it wouldn’t be a good baby’s first birthday cake, would it?
The real saving grace was the whipped cream cheese icing. Only four ingredients and oh so delicious. I might have eaten the leftovers spread over some graham crackers. Just maybe.

The Unhealthy Cake

Seeing as I went healthy on Alice’s cake, I had to balance things out with a decadent and nutritionally void grown-up cake. Being a die-hard Ina Garten fan, I opted for the Beatty’s Chocolate Cake and Buttercream icing, a recipe I’ve seen her make several times on her show and been itching to try.

I added an extra layer of excitement by using the Wilton Giant Cupcake pan, so I had to closely monitor the oven during baking. I deserve a slap on the wrist because I opened that oven door at least five or six times. And of course, I didn’t take note of the actual finishing time. Because the cupcake top portion is significantly smaller than the bottom, I let the bottom cook for about 10 minutes before filling the top side. I then set the time for another 20 minutes. About 7 toothpicks and 15 to 20 minutes later, I think it was done but that was two days ago and my brain is foggy.
This cake was a total win. The icing (I halved the recipe) was light and creamy. The cake was dense and rich, yet moist.

The only minor change to the recipe was using instant espresso instead of instant coffee; I trust Ina. And you should, too! Go make this cake!

More birthday fun to come!

A Bevy of Baby Knits (in Chronological Order)

2009-11-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

What is this? An early Christmas miracle? I think the last time I posted twice in a week was back in 2006. Let's hope the momentum continues!

Okay, let’s go back when back when I started my nearly a year-long hiatus on the blog (before yesterday’s post that is). I had a baby. Like any self-respecting knitter, I made an abundance of baby knits. Most of these knits were created during my two weeks of maternity leave before Alice was born. Some people nest, some people knit. Who’s to judge what’s better?
While I’ve been slow to keep up the blog, I’ve been relatively good about maintaining Ravelry. Good thing, because I don’t think I would even remember what I knitted, let alone the little details.

I started with a few sweaters, because a baby born in November needs lots of sweaters, right? And when a knitter talks about baby sweaters, they’re really just talking about EZ. With that, I made:

A BSJ

She grew out of this in like five minutes. But she looked damn cute for those five minutes! Okay, maybe a couple months. It was the perfect little newborn sweater – trim and close-fitting and just plain adorable. Also gender-neutral for future babes.

Oh so teeny! Just a couple days old!

Ravelry Link
Pattern: BSJ
Yarn: Vesper Sock Yarn in Meteor
Needles: Size 5 Addis
Dates Knitted: September 8, 2008 to September 30, 2008
Mods: No need to mess with perfection.
Comments: A great project for the Non-Superwash Vesper Sock Yarn patiently waiting in my stash.

In her beloved swing. I don't know what we would have done without that thing!

One Fish, Two Fish

Another project in my queue of baby knits well before I saw pink lines or ultrasounds were these little guys:

I mean, what newborn doesn’t need two bigger than life-size knitted fish?
I started the big guy at the end of October, but seemed to forget about him and his little friend. With Alice still refusing to make her entrance, I finished them up.

These are the softest, most adorable, most useless baby knit ever, but I lurve them. She’s too young to really enjoy them, but I know she will grow to love them (har, get it, grow! Sorry J ) I’ve started using them as props in photoshoots as a reference point for Alice’s growth and letting her play with them a bit. By play with, I mean gum and suck.

Ravelry Link
Pattern: Big Fish, Little Fish
Yarn: Blue Sky Dyed Cotton in Lemongrass and Aloe
Needles: Size 8 Addis
Dates Knitted: October 30, 2008 – November 17, 2008

With still no sign of Alice despite her impending her due date, I was worried about starting any big, valiant projects in fear that I would go into labor and not finish in time. I’m not quite sure why this prospect was so unsettling to me, but I stuck to knitting hats those last couple days before she was born. Of course, knitting a baby hat takes no time at all, so I knit a couple.

Sheep Hat

Sweet Little Alice, only 1 day old!

I started with a hat that I had been ogling for awhile. Who doesn’t love sheep? And how clever that the sheep’s wool is purled? Love. Unfortunately, this hat really did fit for only about a week and it was never a great fit. Weighing in close to 9 pounds, she wasn’t the teeniest baby after all. I still made her wear it because it was too stinkin’ cute not to.

Ravelry Link
Pattern: Baby Sheep Hat by Melissa Burt
Days Knit: November 17-18 (my due date!)
Needles: Size 5 and 6
Yarn: All scraps from the stash! Boo-yah!
Mods: I added pink to the color scheme to make it a touch more girly. Who knew pink would become such a staple in my color palette?

On a high from my yarn thriftiness and ingenuity, I pulled some leftover scraps from a few Big Bad Baby Blankets I knitted for some other babies together into this little hat:

Flour Sack Baby Hat

Getting ready to leave the hospital

Ravelry Link
Pattern: My own, made up on the fly.
Needles: Size 7 and 8
Yarn: Blue Sky Organic Cotton in Sand, Nut, and Bone
Days Knit: November 18
So adorable. My all time favorite for her. I might need to make her another for next fall, I loved it so much. Blue Sky Cotton is just delicious and perfect for baby knits.

4 months old

A February Baby Sweater

Despite my purchasing the yarn for this sweater well before she was born, this knit did not make it to the needles until she was a couple months old. That’s fine because it would have been huge on her. In fact, it didn’t start to really fit her until the spring and still fits well, although it’s getting a little short. While I love the sweater and have received tons of compliments on it, I’m always nervous when she wears it. Especially now that she loves pulling on buttons. I think this will be the last buttoned baby sweater I’ll make for her for a little whilet. I weaved the ends in for inches, but I’m still anxiety-ridden the entire time she’s in the sweater. You think that’s bad? What would you think if I told you that one morning after dressing Alice, I decided there was no chance I could send her wearing her peapod sweater as the buttons were starting to loosen up. So, I took the scissors to the sweater and snipped the buttons off. Each and every one. For someone usually laid back, I’m really taking the button thing a little far. I can’t help it.

Ravelry Link
Pattern: February Baby Sweater
Needles: Size 7
Days Knit: February 21, 2009 to March 18, 2009
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon

Digging through all my pictures since Alice was born makes me so nostalgic. And seems appropriate with her 1st birthday next Friday. I know it sounds cliche, but it really goes so fast. My baby is barely a baby anymore! Sniff sniff.

PS - I still have some other projects to catch up on. They’ll be trickling on through…

Why we like owls.

2009-11-10T14:34:00.002-05:00

This whole owl trend of the past few years is quite convenient for my family. See, my grandma had a bit of an owl obsession. “Obsession” might even be an understatement. Her avocado fridge was cluttered with owl magnets – felt, ceramic, you name it. Owl figurines jockeyed for space on crowded window sills; cross stitch owl cushions adorned her couches. You get the picture. When she passed away in 2003, I could think of no better way to preserve her memory than by snagging one of her countless sets of owl salt and pepper shakers and a pair of owl mugs for my house.

I always chalked the owls up to a fondness for a 1970s trend that wouldn’t quit. That was until a couple weekends ago when I shared my theory with my mom, who laughed and informed me that the owl was my grandparents’ college mascot. I guess that makes sense, although I can’t image a day where my house would be decorated with a myriad of royal bulldogs.

Even though it’s been awhile since my grandma has gone, she seems to have passed her owl affinity on to us all. When Alice was born, my cousin, Kris, bought Alice a little owl outfit with a note enclosed about my grandma. My sister admitted this past weekend that she always reaches for the owl mugs first when she’s visiting. Whenever we see anything owl-related, we’re inexplicably drawn to it. It helps that owls are everywhere these days.

So while it’s a shame Alice never got to meet her great-grandmother, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that Alice can help carry on my grandma’s tradition. So, when I saw this hat I knew I had to make it. It didn’t hurt that it’s one of the cutest new knits of the season.

Project Details.
Pattern: Hoot Hat, Spud & Chloe Pattern by Susan B. Anderson
Yarn: Mirasol Miski in Wine held double, Mirasol Sulka in Horseradish + scraps of cascade, lamb’s pride, and berocco ultra alpaca for face.
Needles: I’m pretty sure I used size 10 Addis. Maybe size 9, but I think 10…
Time to knit: 5 seconds. Okay, more like a couple hours.
Comments:

-The real effort with this hat is in the finishing. The extra time spent seaming the hat flap to the main section and the time knitting the face will make or break this hat.

- I didn’t feel like dropping a ton of money on a baby hat for a baby who hates hats, so I went to knitters bargain basement aka my stash. I doubled up the miski to match the gauge of the sulka, but my gauge was still smaller than the pattern yarn. I read a number of people found the hat to be HUGE, so I knit the 6-12 month size for my 11 month old daughter. Even with the smaller gauge, it fits her but won’t for long.

- I would like to line all of my clothing with Mirasol Miski. Or at the very least, buy a bunch of baby llamas just so I can pet them.

And I’m back!

2009-06-30T15:42:00.004-04:00

I don’t know how you all feel, but I’m pretty sick of nursing pads monopolizing key space at the top of my blog. There’s really only one way to remedy that.

While the past couple months have produced little (okay, no) blogging around here, I have been crafty in bits and spurts. While I daydream about my sewing machine, it sits idle upstairs in the guest room because I have yet to find a suitable and usable home for it.

Instead, I’ve been knitting in spurts when I have time and the motivation. I hit a dead spot in my want to knit after I finished Clapotis (oops, I don't think the blog even knows about Clapotis!) and it seemed to last and last. For awhile, I didn’t even have a project on the needles. And sadly, I didn’t care. I was waiting for that must-knit project to reignite my knitting, but it never materialized. I started a project or two, but nothing grabbed me.

The beginnings of a Hemlock Ring Blanket aka the destroyer of my knitting. PS - If you think your circular knitting needle is too short for a blanket, it is.

Then we went to the Cape for a week. I brought a couple of projects, with an uneven ration of yarn to project, with the balls of yarn heavily outweighing the project. With me came my Shetland Triangle (or the ten or so rows I knit and a couple balls of yarn), my retro redux shrug (or three balls of Blue Sky Cotton), and my Anastasia Socks (a big cake of STR Rocktober). After sitting on our deck while Alice napped, I fumbled through my book waiting for it to engage me. When it didn’t, I picked up my Shetland Triangle. Within a couple of rows, I was getting back into the swing of things and felt oddly relaxed. The air felt fresh and clean and my shoulders light. Row after row appeared and I sank deeper in my chair. Gone were feelings of obligation to the project at hand and frustration that I forgot to mark my place in the pattern. I felt good and so did knitting.

The Yellow Blob that brought me back

I’m still chugging along on my lace, but I’m okay with taking my time. For once, I feel more of a process knitter than product and it’s a nice change.

Also, look how big she got! And she's even bigger now. This pic is about a month old.

Nursing Pad Tutorial

2009-01-15T10:02:00.009-05:00

Thanks for all the lovely messages about Alice! We're getting into a groove around here and I've finally been able to do a little crafting. My sewing machine has finally seen some use and thanks to some sage advice from Elizabeth over at A Mingled Yarn (Thanks, Elizabeth!), I'm finally able to knit while nursing.

Speaking of nursing, after tearing through a couple of boxes of nursing pads I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own more environmentally-friendly version. I couldn't find an available pattern on the internet, so I thought I would share mine with you. There are probably better ways to construct them, but this worked for me.

Don't they look like ravioli?

What you'll need to make 12 breast pads (6 sets):
1/2 yard cotton flannel* (I used a natural color because I didn't want a wild print peeking through my shirt. You can go crazy with creativity, though)
1/4 yard cotton batting*
scissors
thread

*A note on fabric: I used cotton flannel and cotton batting because I had them around, but you can use whatever you'd like. I'd recommend using natural, breathable, but absorbent fabrics like cotton, hemp or bamboo. Also, feel free to add as many layers as necessary. I didn't want to add any bulk to my new, er, nursing figure, so I kept my pads on the slimmer side.

Step 1: Trace circles onto all fabrics. Trace 2 circles for every pad on flannel, and one for each on cotton batting. I used a 4.5 inch food container as my template. Use whatever you have around... mugs, plates, etc. Your template should be slightly larger (about 1/2 inch) than your finished nursing pad size.

Step 2: Cut out circles.

Step 3. Create pad "sandwiches." Flannel on the top and bottom with batting in the center.

Step 4. Cut out a wedge of fabric to make "pacman" shape. Do not cut wedge all the way to the center, but just before. This will prevent extra pointy nipples!

Step 5. Pin fabric in place.

Step 6. Bring two wedge sides together to make cone shape.

Step 7. Using a wide zig zag stitch, baste cone in place. Don't worry if some of the layers aren't secured by the stitches.

Use your sewing machine's widest zig zag setting.

I started on the outside of the circle and sewed towards the center.

Step 8. Flip cone over and stitch over your basting line. This will ensure all layers are stitched together.

Step 9. Zig Zag Stitch (or serge, if you're lucky enough to have a serger) along circle's perimeter.

Step 10. Use crimping scissors (or regular scissors) to trim egdges. If you serged your edges in Step 9, you can ignore this step.

Step 11: Enjoy dry shirts, while saving the planet (okay, this part might be a stretch, but every little bit counts)!

Alice Jane is Here!

2008-12-03T10:44:00.002-05:00

I'm a little late posting this, but it's been an exhausting couple weeks. Alice was born on November 20 at 8:05am and weighed in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. I'm hoping regular (well, what I consider regular) posting to resume soon.

Bird Mobile: Done

2008-11-12T17:27:00.009-05:00

The baby has yet to make her appearance (5/6 days till my due date!), so I've been occupying my time finishing up some projects.

When I first saw this mobile, I knew I needed to make it for my baby's nursery. I sewed the birds for this project awhile back, but was a little intimidated starting the actual mobile part. The last time I made a mobile was in 9th grade science and I vaguely recall using elaborate formulas, scales, and maybe even a bunsen burner or two (okay, maybe not the bunsen burner). My group built a gum mobile and I remember, despite our elaborate calculations, still having to chew off bits of the gum to make our mobile balance properly.

Several years later and without fancy formulas or a scale (or the ability to chew off bits of the birds' tails), but with a glut of cobwebs in the portion of my brain dedicated to science, I was nervous. I turned first to my geeky husband for guidance, who I thought would jump at the chance to tackle a physics puzzle with me. At first, he bluntly shot me down. After my desperate pleas that this was in fact a science project and a real opportunity for both fun and personal satisfaction, he couldn't help but jump into the project. Unfortunately, his interest was shortlived and he left me with the advice, "use trial and error." Hmm, thanks, honey. He did saw the sticks for me before completely abandoning the project. I'll take what I can get, I guess.

Again on my own, I developed my own process for execution (this might be common sense for you, but I thought it might be useful for some)...

1) Arrange birds. I had 11 birds and 3+ sticks. I laid out the sticks and the birds until i found an arrangement I liked.

2) Starting from the bottom, sew the birds to the sticks with dark brown thread. Use several tight loops to ensure birds stay propped on stick and do not droop.

3) Determine center balance point by resting the stick on finger (obviously, very technical). Screw in an eyelet screw at the balance point.

4) Attach fishing line to eyelet screw.

5) Attach eyelet screw to bottom of next highest stick (just guesstimate where you think it belongs; you can work out the balance with the placement of the top eyelet screw) and attach fishing line.

Repeat steps 2 through 5 until you have completed all tiers of the mobile. To make minor balance adjustments, you can shift the birds around a bit.

MATERIALS
Fabric: Amy Butler, Midwest Modern leftovers from the Baby's Quilt and Belle scraps from a yet to be blogged quilt

Sticks: J and I went back and forth on this. I wanted to use plain ole sticks from the backyard and even carried home a bunch while on a walk with Miles. J was very against the thought of "dirty, bug-infested" wood hanging over our daughter's crib. I still wanted the appearance of sticks, so I bought painted bamboo pieces from the Big Box Craft Store. Perfect compromise. I still prefer the rustic look of regular sticks, but overall, I'm pleased with the mobile.

Thread

Eyelet Screws (bought in the framing section of Big Box Craft Store)

Fishing Line

Ceiling Hook

Lots more FOs to come, I'm on maternity leave and have been busy!

28 Thirty: Done

2008-10-23T17:03:00.006-04:00

Thanks so much for all the comments on the Weekender Bag! My mom just received it yesterday and is really happy with it (or so she says!). The weekender isn't the only FO in these parts...

Over the past year or so, I’ve developed a bad habit of finishing a handknit, wearing it a bunch, but never managing time (or motivation) for a FO shoot. Even my ravelry project list is crowded with FOs that show only half finished project pictures. I’m going to blame it on the fact that my knitting picks up when it’s cold and dark out and I’m loathe to photograph a FO in bad lighting.

I swear, I used to be able to button it all the way!

Now that the temps are cooling off in New England, I’ve been pulling out my handknits, most notably one of my favorite knits from earlier in the year, 28 Thirty. I reach for this one not just because it’s cute and comfy, but because it (sort of) works with my belly. Who knew when I finished this project, the FO shoot would feature a pregnant me? Not me, that’s for sure!

Long Neck

Pattern: 28Thirty. Another top-down winner from the Zephyr Girls. This sweater really flew off the needles, despite a few project breaks. Comfortable and infinitely wearable, I would definitely consider making another. I could see going with the shorter version as written in the pattern or going in the opposite direction with a long sweater-coat.

Sleeve

Source: Zephyr Style
Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns, Andy’s Merino in Cranberry (1 skein), Mahogany (3 skeins), and Wine Berries (1 Skein). I bought this yarn during the Farmhouse Yarns bag sale (you pay $100 for all the yarn you can fit in a shopping bag. Pay $200 and you get to fill up one of those ginormous Rubbermaid bins!). I bought two different colors of the yarn convinced they were close enough to blend. I didn’t start to question this until I wound the yarn and found one was a bit more of a cool berry pink (Cranberry), the other a warmer rich pink (Mahogany). Because the yarn is more of a semi-solid and I only had one skein of the Cranberry, I just decided to roll with it. I didn’t introduce the third color (Wine Berries) until I finished the rest of the yarn and the sweater was a couple inches about my waistband. I always add a few inches to my sweaters (apparently, at 5’5/5’6, I’m an Amazon woman in the world of knitting patterns), so I decided to keep knitting with the Wine Berries, which I had leftover from a hat I made my mom over Christmas. The Wine Berries is significantly darker, more red than pink, but I think it creates kind of an ombre appearance (or so I’ve convinced myself). For a merino, the yarn isn’t super soft like a Malabrigo, but it’s certainly next-to-the-skin wearable. I still find veggie matter caked into the sweater, but that’s just a friendly reminder that at Farmhouse the sheep are raised and sheered, and the yarn spun and dyed, then sold all in one place. I’ll take a little VM over an over processed wool any day! While visiting the farm for the yarn sale, I even saw Andy, the merino who made this sweater a reality! Where else does that happen?

Needles: Size 9 Addis
Time to Knit: February to March 2008
Raveled: Here
Mods: Other than the obvious lengthening of the sweater, not much. I added some waist decreases and just kept knitting until I was happy with the length. I think it’s longer when I don’t have a huge belly, but it’s been so long I can’t remember!

Action Shot

I'm still plugging away at my dad's sweater - it's my only WIP, the first time that's happened in a LONG time! My fingers are already itching to cast on for another project - my baby's Christmas stocking!

FO: Weekender Bag, Version 3.0

2008-10-15T15:36:00.014-04:00

When I finished my first weekender bag, I claimed it would be the last. When my sister requested one a few months later, I couldn’t help but give in, but swore this one would definitely be my last. Even then, I knew I would eventually make one for my mom. While the three of us have slightly different taste, there is definitely a common current within all of our style aesthetics. I credit my dad for this, the most opinionated and eager fashion critic in the family. (Seriously!) Anyway, I think his unique guy perspective taught all three of us to take a second look at various garments and bags and realize that some of our initial castoffs are actually fashion jewels in disguise. This phenomenon worked both ways. A sour facial expression of his could also soil what we originally found to be the “must-have” essential of the shopping trip. Now that I’m pushing 30, I don’t often bring my dad in tow when I go shopping, but I still find myself relying on his perspective, which invariably influences nearly every of my fashion purchases, and I’m sure those of my mother and sister.

Every once in a while, all three of us will stumble upon something that we all “need.” Most often, it’s my mom who discovers something so uniquely wonderful that she’ll buy one for each of us. My sister, who has the keenest eye for high fashion (while I was wearing homemade dresses and Birkenstocks in college, she was wearing Dior sunglasses and toting around Louis Vuitton bags), manages that arena. With the weekender, it’s my turn to give back.

A compilation of handmade goods - a handknit sweater and handknit bag. Oh, and a 8-month pregnant belly, but that's not really handmade, or is it?

Nearly two years after finishing the first, I completed my third weekender bag this past weekend. Lucky for my mom, version 3.0 is by far the best technically-executed of the three. I never even finished sewing the lining into my bag!

Pattern: Weekender Bag by Amy Butler
Exterior Fabric: Joel Dewberry, Ginseng Collection from Purl. 2 yards, Sand Spade Damask 1/2 yard Camel Modern Bud
Interior Fabric: Home Dec weight cotton in Mustard from Joann.
Other notions: Gunmetal Grey Zipper, Cotton Cording, Template Plastic, Interfacing, Timtex, etc. All from Joann.

I fell in love with Joel Dewberry fabrics while making this bag. I’ve been loving "grellow" lately and knew my mom would also love the colors, so choosing this palette was a no-brainer. I didn’t realize it until I started cutting, but the main fabric looks like little owls and the strap/cording fabric look like either little flowers or like the Family Circus cartoon characters (I flipped this fabric, so it looks more like flowers). Just a random observation :)

There’s really not more to say about this bag that I haven’t said before (or hasn't been said by others). Like the two other bags, I added a zipper pocket to one side of the interior and a wall of pockets on the other side. I would be lost without those pockets on my bag, they really are a must. I used a walking foot this time around in place of the standard foot, which helped a great deal. I still went through 3 or 4 needles while making this bag, one area I can’t seem to improve upon. Also, when the needle breaks, it usually bends my walking foot, which requires me to pry it back into shape with pliers. Fun.

Inside Zipper Pocket

I'm not a huge fan of hand-sewing, so sewing the lining to the exterior of the bag has been a problem area for me. I never finished it with my bag and my sister's is a little schlumpy. Rather than ultimately being disappointed with the final product, I sat down and watched Ironman and SNL and resigned myself to painstakingly finish the bag. I'm so glad I did. A few hours of work yielded a polished product, one of which I am proud. Now if I could just force myself to do that all the time...

Wall of Side Pockets

I’d say this one is definitely the last and that I will never make another weekender bag, but I’ve seen crazier things happen so I’ll just keep my mouth shut.

Zipper (duh)

In any case, Happy Birthday, Mom! I hope you enjoy the bag (once I finally send it to you). Now we just have to worry about all three of us not using them at the same time!

FO: Flore and Bounce

2008-10-09T17:38:00.011-04:00

With the cooler temps settling in and my due date quickly approaching, my knitting pace has picked up. Amongst my recent pile of FOs, I finished a few hats in that past couple weeks.

First, Flore...

The details:

[Ravelry Link]
Pattern: Flore by Tina Whitmore
Yarn: Takhi Cotton Classic in deep pink, grass, pink, olive, and blue-greyNeedles: Size 5 Addi Circs. I only have one set, so I had rotate needles a bit.
Size: Infant, although I think it looks a bit big. We'll see when my baby gets here. I'd rather it be too big than too small.
Time to Knit: One week

I think it turned out super cute, but I don't know if I could knit another one. The construction of the hat itself is facscinating: you alternate between two sets of needles as you knit each color, then bind the two pieces together with a modified 3-needle bind off. It's the finishing that killed me. You have to tack down each petal and wind in a bazillion ends. I just veged out and watched some TV, so it went by relatively quickly. Still, it will be awhile before I cast on for a second one. It's too bad because a bunch of my friends have hinted around about getting similar hats for their daughters. Maybe if I were a nicer person, I would suck it up and knit a few more, but I just can't make myself. Not for a few more months at least:)

Oops, now I'm worried I'm talking you all out of knitting this hat, which is opposite my intent! The hat is adorable and well worth the time and effort - I just think one hat is enough! I can't wait for my little one to arrive so she can wear it!

Because I can't let the baby be the only one with a stylish hat, I cast on for Bounce...

From the moment I saw this pattern, I knew I needed to make it. It was just pure luck that I had a perfect skein of yarn languishing in my stash, just waiting to be knit into something fantastic.

The details: [ravelry link]
Pattern: Bounce by John Brinegar
Yarn: Sheep Shop Yarn Company, Sheep 1, 1 skein
Needles: Size 10.5 Bamboo Circs, Size 10 Addi Circs
Time to Knit: October 1 - October 4

I absolutely adore this hat, but I'm not sure how well I can pull it off. I don't know why I'm having such a complex about it when usually I'll wear whatever and not think twice. We'll see if I can boost my confidence with it over the fall. It's super cozy and warm, though, so I have a hunch it will eventually become a favorite.

Knitting this hat was not only humbling for me, but a true test of perseverance. It's been awhile since a knitting pattern really stumped me, but I was at a complete loss with the brioche stitch. I literally frogged this hat FOUR times. It was only self-preservation that got me through. I had to prove to myself that I could do it. Turns out, I never did master brioche rib as written in the pattern, but was able to grasp the stitch after flipping through my stitch dictionary. Hey, whatever got me there, right

I have a couple other FOs to blog, but those will wait for another time.

I have a WIP that can't wait, however. After scouring both my LYSs and the internet for a perfect yarn and then hemming and hawing about ordering, I finally received the yarn and cast on for my dad's birthday/Christmas sweater!

I'm knitting Joseph from Rowan's A Yorkshire Fable, which calls for Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky. I would have loved to find some, but alas it's gone extinct, like so many of my Rowan favorites. I waffled between the replacement Scottish Tweed, Beaverslide McTaggart Tweed, and Cascade 128 and 109 before eventually settling on the Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Chunky. So far, so good, although I have a sneaky suspicion I'm going to run out of yarn. I'm already halfway through my second ball (I bought nine) and about 1/3 finished with the back (I've progressed significantly farther than shown in the progress shot). I'm going to knit the back, then one sleeve and make a judgment call on whether or not I need to start panicking.

Pink Pea: Done

2008-09-04T18:12:00.011-04:00

Knitting has overtaken sewing as my craft of choice these days. I don't know if it's because my fingers are craving the bigger needles or just because I've temporary lost my sewing space to the nursery. We're still working out my sewing machine's new home. Until then, I have to lug it down to the dining room everytime I want to sew a stitch. And pack it up every night because otherwise J would have a conniption fit ... shall we say he's a bit of a neat freak? That, and he doesn't understand how much of a pain it is to breakdown your sewing studio on a nightly basis.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. Knitting. Maybe it's their innate portability and speed off the needles, but I'm feeling more productive and accomplished after knitting all these baby sweaters lately. My most recent project off the needles is Pink Pea (more commonly known as the Pea Pod Sweater Set), the first sweater for my baby! After spending all summer knitting for other people's babies, it's a refreshing change to knit for my own.

Pattern: Pea Pod Baby Set by Kate Gilbert (sadly, and a bit annoyingly, no longer available even to those who purchased the magazine. I was just dumb luck that I printed a copy before the pattern was removed from the site.)

Because my baby is not here to model, I enlisted Orangutan. He was less than pleased to oblige.

I scowl because I'm forced to model a pink sweater.

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Merino DK in Pale Pink, 3+ balls. I barely used any of the fourth ball.
Needles: Size 5 Addis.
Wooden Buttons: 6, from Big Box Craft Store
Size: 6 months
Mods? No mods, really. Just knit the sleeves in the round and subbed the yarn.
Comments: This pattern is perfect for when you can't devote your full attention to a project, but need something more interesting than stockinette. A good portion of this sweater was knit while at evening concerts in the park. Good times!

I bought the yarn at a recent sale at my LYS and was quite pleased with how it worked up. Good stitch definition and it softens up even more with a good bath. Now I just have to cross my fingers my baby's skin can handle wool.

Miles is weary of the orangutan.

Not one to let my needles cool down, I cast on for Flore, which like the Pea Pod Sweater is another baby project I planned on making long before I even considered having a baby. Funny how that works, huh?

Children's Placket-Neck Pullover: Done

2008-08-19T19:05:00.003-04:00

For some reason, I faced the biggest mental block with the name of this sweater. I even had to refer back to Ravelry just to title my blog post. I made this lil sweater for my nephew, set to arrive this November. I cast on for Trellis first, but the pattern and the yarn didn't vibe very well. After two attempts with different needle sizes, I gave up and cast on for the CPNP.

Pattern: Children's Placket-Neck Pullover. Easy to follow and minimal seaming. Will definitely use again.

Source: Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Yarn: 3.5 skeins Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, Colorway 402. Size: 0-6/6-12. Because of the yarn sub, I followed instructions for the 0-6 version, except for the length measurements, of which I followed the 6-12. The final sweater dimensions are those of the 6-12 month size.

Needles: Size 6 Addis.

I enjoyed working with the MF Cotton, but will reserve it for projects with an "organic" feel. Its nubby texture workes well for this stockinette sweater, but hides cables and anything that requires sharp stitch definition.

I encountered some gauge issues... I started with Size 7 Needles, but the fabric was too thin and "holey" for me. I reknit with Size 6 needles and the resulting fabric is nice and dense, but maybe a touch thicker than I prefer. I'd rather err on the the "too thick" side, so I went with the 6's.

Final Verdict: Success! It's a versatile little sweater and because it's cotton, it should transition well through the winter/spring seasons. But for now, this sweater will collect dust while we wait for this baby to get here!

With this sweater off the needles, I am officially free to knit just for my baby! (Unless I fall weak and take on other projects...) I already started a new baby sweater set...

...The Pea Pod Baby Set

February Baby Sweater: Done

2008-08-15T14:52:00.005-04:00

Yes, another baby project, but this one is not for my baby. Usually my friends and family like the surprise of learning their baby's sex upon delivery, which requires me to knit only gender neutral clothing. This sweater was a gift for the baby naming party of the newest girl in our family, so I was particularly thrilled to make something girly for once!

Pattern: February Baby Sweater

Source: Knitters Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Cool Fire, 1 skein (every last inch)

Needles: Size 6 Addis.

This sweater is a knitters staple, first in its Baby form and more recently, its Lady variation, so I won't rehash what we already know about this pattern. I'll just leave it at this: EZ + Yarn = Satisfying and Successful Project. Easy enough, right?

After hearing the praises of Dream in Color, I was a little stunned to find it a little rough and scratchy during knitting. I worried it wouldn't be a good match for delicate baby skin, but decided to press on. Luckily, after a nice Kookaboora bath my fears were squashed. Literally the second I dunked this puppy. the yarn softened up into drapey wooly softness. I had to exercise all my self-restraint not to rub the sopping sweater against my cheeks.

I'm currently working on yet another baby sweater, this one for my nephew due in November. After that, I'm only knitting for my baby until she's here. How is it that she's due to arrive in three short months and she has not one piece of finished knitwear? That's a problem needing attention.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

PS - I just got a new lens for my camera, hence all the pictures.

What a Bunch of Squares Baby Quilt: Done!

2008-08-13T15:02:00.003-04:00

I'm still in the midst of my pregnancy-induced nesting binge, so I'll continue on in my parade of baby-related FOs. Here's the latest, my first completed (notice I didn't say started) quilt...

Pattern: What a Bunch of Squares from Denise Schmidt Quilts
Fabric: 1/4 yard each of 4 Amy Butler Prints from her Midwest Modern Collection, 1.5 yards light yellow Kona Cotton, 2.5 yards Amy Butler Quilting Solids in bright pink for backing.

Let it be known that I'm the most indecisive person on the planet. It takes me forever to make a decision and when I finally do, I still question it. Choosing the yellow was my most difficult decision in the quilt store. I wanted something subtle, which was not easy to find with a mix of warm and cool prints. While constructing the quilt top, I wavered back and forth whether I made the right decision to concentrate all the printed fabric into the squares. It looked to me like little color explosions in the midst of a wide expanse of washed out yellow.

Once I started the actual quilting part, I became enamored with the quilt. The punchy little boxes became delicate color cubes, reminiscent of log cabin squares. The topstitching that framed each square popped in the muted background. Not only was I in love with the quilt, but with quilting itself, the exact part of the quilting process I found most intimidating. I became so empowered that after finishing this quilt, I pulled out a full/queen-sized quilt top I finished this winter and quilted that, too! (Pictures/Write-up forthcoming).

My favorite square

Little details:
I quilted this as directed in the pattern - six sets of squares 1 1/4 inches apart per block.
I need to be less lazy and not try to sew over safety pins. I think I broke 4 needles this way. Oops.
While I used the pattern from DSQ, I followed many of the techniques outlined in The Modern Quilt Workshop:

I did not cut my bias tape on the bias. My quilt didn't explode or anything!
Rather than machine stitch one side of the binding then handstitch the other side, I used my machine and stitched the whole thing in one fell swoop.

Also, special thanks to Elizabeth at A Mingled Yarn (who is also expecting a girl in November!) for giving me the Arte y Pico Award! It's my first blog award!

I'll pass the award onto...

Nova at NovaMade
Jackie at Yarnish
Veronique at Tres Chic Veronique
Lobstah at Lobstah Life
Minty at Pepperknit

It was hard to pick just five blogs, but these are some that I rush to read as soon as they are bolded in my bloglines. You all have kept me inspired, made me laugh out loud, or just kept me entertained with your projects and musings! Thanks for that!

Rules
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico" blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.

Painted Silhouettes

2008-08-01T12:49:00.008-04:00

I've wanted to make these painted silhouettes since Anna Maria Horner was on Martha last year. Finally, I found a perfect place for them - the nursery! That, plus my having the perfect amount of leftover fabric from the baby's quilt and this project was kismet.

I used the wren stencil provided in the tutorial and scoured the internets for some other animal shapes that could hold their own without much detailing. I fell in love with the fawn immediately, but waffled back and forth between the fish and an owl. I let J make the final choice and he selected the fish. which works because I want to make these stuffed fish, inspired by Ms. Julie Frick. I think the fish still needs a little something something - maybe a button eye will do the trick?

Materials

3 12" x 12" x 1.5" canvases
less than 1/4 yard each print Amy Butler fabric, Midwest Modern collection
Fabric Modge Podge (I'm sure any variety will work, I just thought I would get more use out of the Fabric type)
Fabric Paint (I bought both Jacquard and a cheaper craft store brand and much preferred the craft store brand. The Jackquard was running and leaked through the fabric instead of adhering to it.)
Freezer Paper (Optional)
Paper Stencils
Paintbrushes

Comments/Modifications

I adhered to the tutorial for the most part, but diverged at a couple of points.

I used a standard office stapler, not a staple gun as specified in the tutorial. It wasn't even a nice Swingline or anything - just a mini variety J had in college.
I tried a couple of painting techniques to see which worked best for me. For the fish, I followed the tutotial to the T. However, after I applied the modge podge the fabric stretched out a buckled quite a bit. This, coupled with a hankering for some freezer paper stenciling, was enough to stop me from modge-podging the other two.
I had mixed results with both methods. The paint gripped much better to the modge-podged canvas because it had a bit more tooth. While I had to be more fastidious with my painting, overall, it was easier to paint and required fewer coats. Also, rest assured, the buckles and stretching magically disappeared as the canvas dried.
With the freezer paper stenciled versions, I ironed the freezer paper to the canvas, then painted the animal, removed the freezer paper, ironed the (now dry) paint, and then applied the modge podge. It was definitely less stressful painting with the freezer paper, but the fabric buckled during painting, then again during modge-podging. Unfortunately, the buckles are still somewhat obvious, but I'm slowly coming to terms with it. Also, the paint didn't set as well (even though it was fabric paint) and required two coats - one before and after modge-podging. Add those extra steps with the time it takes to cut your freezer paper and this method is certainly more time consuming.

All said and done, I prefer the tutorial's method. This was a refreshing project - it's been a while since I pulled out my paintbrushes and put down the needles (sewing and knitting). I can see more of these in the future.

Phew, that was a long post. Hopefully it made sense! I never thought I would write the word "modge podge" so many times in one post.
Oh, and one more thing! It's been a LONG time since I've been so smitten with a sweater. Have you all seen this?! I can't wait to cast on.

I think I'll keep the wheat color as the MC, but sub in an orangey brown and navy for the CCs.

The Story of a Dress

2008-07-29T12:19:00.014-04:00

I picked up this dress pattern and a couple yards of Amy Bulter fabric last summer with grandiose plans (I'm quite adept at making the plans, it's the execution where I struggle) of making a dress for a wedding over Labor Day weekend. When the dress didn't materialize for the wedding, I shifted goals and decided it would be my "cruise dress" for mid-September.

Fast forward to this Spring. Pattern and fabric continue to collect dust. I'm torn between making the dress and only getting to wear for a few months (weeks?) before baby belly balloons and not making the dress and not getting to wear it until next year.

I decide to press on and I finish dress before I'm even showing and now, at 24 weeks pregnant, it still fits perfectly. Many guess it's a maternity dress, of which I'm not sure if I should take offense. I decide to take as compliment.

The stats:

Pattern: Built by Wendy Dress, Style 3835

Fabric: Amy Butler, Lotus Collection, 2+ Yards
Time to Make: 2 evenings

Favorite Part of Dress: Pockets! All dresses should have them!

This being my first sewn garment in quite a while, I forgot how much quicker sewing is than knitting. From cutting the pattern pieces and fabric to sewing the final hem, this dress only took two work nights to complete. The pattern is intuitive and easy to follow, with plenty of opportunity for creative alterations. I stuck to the pattern as written for the most part, but cut for a larger size on the bottom to accommodate my er, pear shape. It worked out well and left some room for my expanding baby belly.

This dress has been finished for a few months and has already seen a lot of wear - usually once a week to work (hey, my maternity wardrobe is still pretty meager), a bridal shower, and some other more dress up occasions.

It's a winner!

Pretty neckline gathers

Oh, and thanks everyone for your comments on my last post! The quilt progresses and will make an appearance soon!

It's a Girl!

2008-06-26T20:35:00.004-04:00

Even before we got pregnant, we decided we would wait for the baby was born to find out the gender. We wanted that "it's a boy/girl" moment in the delivery room and thought it was worth waiting the extra 6 months. That is, until we got pregnant and I realized I would be significantly limited in my knitting and sewing for the little one. I'm not a boy=blue / girl=pink type, but I would certainly make different selections for the nursery and wardrobes. So, I've been counting down to June 19th for the past oh, two or three months. Our "big" ultrasound.

It's a girl!

The wheels immediately started turning and my brain spilled over with ideas for must-knit baby sweaters and booties and of course, the bedding set. After spending at least 4 or 5 hours pouring over fabric online (seriously), I finally just went to my local quilt shop (LQS? Does that work?) to see some fabrics in person. I decided every baby deserves Amy Butler and stocked up on some prints from her Midwest Modern line. She really outdoes her self with every new collection, doesn't she?

Here's the haul...

I'm excited about my choices, modern and not super girly. Plus, the fabrics match her sage green nursery. Bonus.

All the fabric is washed and pressed and a pattern has been chosen. I'm hoping to make some good progress this weekend.

Dusting off the Blog

2008-06-11T20:37:00.010-04:00

I keep popping in and out of this blog despite promises to stick around... Sorry about that. And more than anything, I'm so sorry I've been absent on your blogs and lack of comments. I've missed being a productive member of blogciety, though, and I'll be catching up in the next couple days. This time, I have good reason for falling off the face of the earth!

But first, I have some FOs and WIPs to report, but photos only for this little sweater... I made this sweater for my cousin's baby, Jos. I've been saving this yarn for a baby boy sweater, but it seems that most of my pregnant friends and family wait until the baby's born to find out the gender. So, a blue sweater doesn't always work. Until this time! Now, I'm just crossing my fingers that it will fit him in the Fall.

Baby Surprise Jacket

The sweater was held in customs at the Paris airport for the last several days, apparently it was questionable because it was wrapped. Of course, the first handknit item I trust in the mail! Thankfully, I heard from my cousin today, she loves the sweater, and said her first through upon opening the package was, "I wonder if they make these in adult sizes." I'll take that as a compliment!

Comments: There's not much to say about this sweater that hasn't already been said. EZ is obviously a genius. I just sat back and trusted her directions and voila - a funny shaped panel of knitting magically transfrormed into an adorable baby sweater. If only it could change diapers, too.

Stats:

Pattern: Surprise Baby Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Socks that Rock Medium Weight in Bella Coola (2007 Sock Club Kit)
Needles: Size 6 Addi Circs
Time to Knit: A trimester.

Did any of you catch that part? So, this is the first of many baby items, but finally I will be making them for my baby!

As much as I wanted to be productive with blogging and knitting, it just hasn't been in the cards the past few months. Knitting made me nauseous, sitting up made me nauseous, thinking about sitting up made me nauseous. You get the picture. And that's the just the nausea, the exhaustion is an entirely different story. As much as it would be nice to chronicle this time, I even paused my 365 self portrait project because all my photos were of me sleeping. In any case, I'm well into my second trimester now and hope this will be a permanent re-entry to blogland.

We find out next week if we're having a boy or a girl, so I can dive into my baby knitting and sewing. My baby (also called "the fetus" and "the little macaroni") is due in November and will require a full stock of handknits, so I have to get cracking. Also, I hope to make a quilt and other decorations for the nursery. At least baby items are small and conducive to summer knitting.

New Cardi on the Needles

2008-02-27T17:37:00.007-05:00

Hello there! Thanks for the comments on Demi. She has quickly become a beloved knit and to prove my love to her, I've been wearing her non-stop.

Not giving my needles a second to cool off, I cast on for 28Thirty, the latest little number from the Zephyr Girls. I'm using some Farmhouse Yarn I picked up this Fall in a firey color in honor of Project Spectrum. This is my second ZG knit and I just love their topdown formula. I started only a week ago and the sweater is just zooming along. I'm to the point where the sweater is getting heavy and more cumbersome to shift around while knitting, but that also means I'm nearing the end of the body. Woo hoo!

There's an issue, though, see. I have a little extra wool than required and would love the cardi to be full length instead of cropped, so I'm skipping around a bit. In a couple rows, I'm going to put the body on some waste yarn and start on the sleeves. Once the sleeves are finished, I'll just knit the body until I run out of yarn. Oh, and did I mention I'm working with three hanks of one color and one of another? Yup. I knew they were different colorways when I bought them, but convinced myself they were "close enough." Not so much. So, I'm randomly knitting a few rows here and there with the oddball and will probably knit the cuffs with the leftovers. It's a bit more noticeable than I expected, but still workable.

color changes

Demi: Done

2008-02-19T20:29:00.000-05:00

I've waited a year to write this post - Demi is done and I couldn't be happier. I stalled out on this sweater after lingering doubt about sizing got the best of me. Way back when I was first questioning the size, a couple of you gave me some sage advice that warned of Yorkshire Tweed's growing power and so I pushed on - well, after letting the WIP collect dust for several months. And, hell yeah, I'm wearing it today (now yesterday by the time I'm posting this!) despite the balmy temps.

Warning: I went a teensy bit overboard with pictures.

Pattern: Demi by Kim Hargreaves

Source: Rowan Vintage Style

Yarn: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran in Thorny purchased here

Needles: Size 6 & 7 Addis - down a size from the pattern.

Buttons: From Joann's

Dates Knitted: January 2007 - February 17, 2008. Sad and Pathetic.

Mods: For me, a sweater's length is directly related to its wearability. I added three whole inches to the body of this sweater and a couple extra inches to the sleeves. I'm medium tallish (5'5-5'6) for reference. There's nothing worse in my book than getting a draft at your waistline while wearing a nice, thick wooly sweater.

As I mentioned above, I went down a needle size for this sweater which brings forth another pet peeve of mine: when an undershirt is visible through the sweater. I have a hard enough time selecting clothes in the morning without having to match my undershirt to my sweater. The resulting fabric is nice and thick, yet still drapey. And not see through - bonus!

Bobbles: I'm one of the few self-professed bobble-lovers out there. (Funny side note: When I solicited my husband's opinion about the sweater, his only comment was " you know there are weird balls stuck all over it?" Apparently, he doesn't understand the essence of the bobble.") I knit the back first with only three-stitch bobbles, rather than five-stitch. But the three-stitch just weren't bobbley enough for me, so I upgraded to the five-stitch on the front and sleeves. Surprisingly, I don't think the bobble variation looks weird. I could be deluded, though.

Fit: Despite my initial sizing concerns, this sweater fits EXACTLY the way I envisioned - somewhat fitted, yet big enough to serve as a top layer.

My favorite part: The button band. These directions really threw me off. I had to completely let me guard down and follow Kim's directions. Plus, I had some weird mental block getting all the piece names straight. Left front shoulder band? Button band? (Okay, I probably should have been able to guess that one). I was concerned the layering of these mini-pieces would get bulky and look silly, but it looks perfectly polished once assembled and really adds character to the sweater. Can you tell I love it?

Getting Demi, my longest running WIP ever, off my needles has given me a newfound freedom! I still have much of my Farmhouse Yarns haul burning a hole in my yarn, um, dresser and a some new Noro goodness brought back by my parents from Hong Kong just begging to be ... something. I'm thinking a cowly pullover?

Maybe 28 thirty?

Demi's Back!

2008-02-13T18:20:00.000-05:00

I picked Demi up again this Fall after a long hiatus. Like 8 months long. It's funny, when I first started knitting Demi (over a year ago now), I was a slave to the chart. With all the traveling stitches and not one blank square, it's a bit intimidating. When I picked it up this time, something just clicked. Me and Demi were at one. It took me a year to knit the back, and a week to knit the front; that really says it all.

Demi: back, front, and the start of some sleeves

I'm about 10 rows from finishing the sleeves, which I am putting off by writing this post and trying to muster up something to make for dinner (I'm leaning towards raspberry pancakes).

Me, cozied up with some Demi sleeves

Oh, and did I mention our basement flooded? Only a few inches and we've been diligent about only letting rubbermaid bins touch the ground, so nothing was damaged. But still! This was our very first drama as homeowners. I came home early to "protect" the house, but still ended up calling J in a panic and making him come home.

Anyway, Demi! I'm knitting the sleeves at the same time because I'm a glutton for punishment. Or maybe just because I can't handle the responsibility of maintaining symmetry on the second sleeve, so I have to knit them simultaneously. Now that I'm almost done, of course I'm glad I knit them together.

Once the sleeves are complete (later tonight. there, now I have to finish.), alls I got left is the little ribby top of sleeve doohicky, seaming (which I'm eagerly anticipating. I had the forethought to slip the last stitch of every other row, so seaming should be a breeze. okay, I just jinxed myself), and then the collar. I will have Demi done by the weekend! Woo hoo!

A couple notes:
I'm sticking with a bigger (normal) sized font.
I finally figured out how to use Haloscan!

FO Extravaganza

2008-02-06T12:43:00.000-05:00

Posting only FO reports has estranged me from this here blog. Sure it's dandy to sit on this side of the blog in a big pile of handknits, but it can't be interesting to learn how many balls of yarn (If I even remember back that far) I used for a project you didn't know was on my needles. It's sure not interesting to me to write about projects that I finished weeks, even months ago. To free myself from the looming pile of FOs (who knew I would ever complain about that?), I'm going to take a page from Ashley's book and run through them in one huge FO extravaganza!

Sara's Swedish Hat

My sister first requested a newboy-style cap with a Swedish Flag (we're 50% Swedish) oh, about a year ago. I dragged my heels not only out of intarsia-related distress, but because I couldn't for the life of me envision how this hat would look and how the hell would a Swedish flag fit on a newboy hat? Fastforward to this Fall-- I'm not exactly sure if her hat objectives changed or if I somehow forced my vision on her, but the blueprint changed and we came up with this:

Pattern: My Own. I probably should have taken better notes---oops, I mean some notes.
In a nut shell, here's my pattern:

Step 1: make a flag chart with some graph paper and colored pencils

Step 2: Cast on 96 stitches. Join without twisting.

Step 3: K2 P2 Rib for an inch

Step 4: K for an inch

Step 5: Incorporate 2 intarsia flags, spaced evenly so on either side of the hat.

Step 6: Once chart has been completed, knit a few MC rows

Step 7: Decrease using your method of choice.

Step 8: Thread tail through remaining stitches.

Step 9: Enjoy warm and patriotic hat. Make friends jealous.

Yarn: Black - Ella Rae Classic in Black; Yellow - Lamb's Pride Worsted in Lemon Drop; Blue - Plymouth Suri Alpaca in French Blue (leftover from this).

Needles: Size 6 Addis

Comments: The hat is a bit loose, which worked out because my sister prefers a looser, freeform hat over a more structured, skull cap. Intarsia Rules! Aside from the rats nest of knots I had to work out every 15 rows or so, intarsia is smooth sailing. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get on the boat.

Mom's Hat

Isn't my mom the cutest?

Pattern: Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Rachel Iufer
Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns, Andy's Merino in Wine Rose. Less than one skein.

Needles: Size 9 Addis

Comments: I was looking for a hat like this (to make, not buy) and was elated when Rachel posted her pattern. I frogged my first version, but consider this one a success!

WEE SWEATERS

I had the romantic idea to knit a wee sweater for each member of my family. We could hang them on the tree, drink egg nog, sing Christmas carols, reminisce over Christmas' past. Start a tradition, and do this every year. Kind of like on Days of our Lives. Hmm, as I write this I realize we actually did almost all of those things... really. Anyway, I have a pretty big family, so I knit 9 of these. Unfortunately, being a last minute type of person, I had only two knit by December 23. Needless to say, I wasn't very helpful cooking Christmas Eve dinner. Sorry, Mom!

my "embroidery" is so embarrassing.

Yarn: Various.

Needles: Small ones--Size 3 Addis, I believe.

MARIGOLD SOCKS

Yarn: Silkie Socks that Rock in Walkin' on the Wild Tide - June Club Yarn

Pattern: Marigold Socks by Pamela Wynne

Needles: Size 1 Addis

Time to Knit: September 07 to January 08

Comments: Great pattern, but could you really expect anything less from Pam? I will definitely knit these again, maybe in something stripey. The mix of wool and silk plies give the yarn a bit of a handspun look, which I dig. As soon as I opened my Rockin' Sock Club package, I knew the yarn was destined to be Marigolds.

SHIFTING SANDS

Pattern:

Shifting Sands by Grumperina

Yarn: Malabrigo in Dusty Olive, 2 skeins

Needles: Size 9 Addis

So, I lied. To come, a few of the FOs I have yet to photograph. For accountability's sake, the two knits are the ubiquitous Cobblestone Pullover, an Unoriginal Hat, and some Embossed Leaves socks. Also to come, several WIPs - including significant progress on Demi.

Done: Hourglass Sweater

2008-01-16T21:25:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the comments on the Birdie Mittens! I finally added Haloscan to my blog, so replying to comments will be SO much easier now. I feel like this blog is quickly becoming a collection of FO reports, but I still have a pile to get through, so let's keep it moving...

Hourglass

can you find all the pets in this picture?

Pattern: Hourglass Sweater, Last Minute Knitted Gifts

I don't know what I love more, the sweater or the wall

Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha from Webs (I have no idea how many skeins). Knitting with Cash Iroha was a bit "eh" for me. Sure it's soft, but the silk content eliminates all flex and the weight ranges from fingering to chunky in places. Wearing Cash Iroha? Totally different story. I still haven't blocked this sweater because I can't bear to think of it wet and unwearable for a few days. While it feels like a sweatshirt, it's almost work appropriate and I slipped it into my daytime wardrobe for a bit. It's rustic look makes it more of a weekend staple.

Needles: Size 7 Addis (I hope the set I lost on the train found their way to another knitter and not a trash heap-see below for details)

Dates Knitted: March 07 - October 07
Mods: Just added five extra decrease rows to the neckline.

The knitting of this sweater was marked by starts and stops, trials and tribulations - the most notable when I left it on a train and had to start over! It's pretty sad it took me so long to finish this. I knit nearly the whole body of the sweater in a week, but let it languish in a bag at the bottom of my closet until September or so. I love knitting sweaters in the round, but the turning motion gets cumbersome as the sweater grows. Poor excuse, but enough for me to let it collect dust.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-06T18:40:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! I guess I'm a few days behind, but oh well. I've seen all of blogland laying out their resolutions for the coming year, which got me to thinking about mine. After throwing some ideas around, I'm not making any. I have trouble mustering up momentum on demand, I'm much better with fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants ambition. So, if on March 1 I decide I will start blogging more or finally stick to that diet, I'm going to go for it.

Because New Years isn't just about looking ahead, but also contemplating the previous year I dug up my crafty resolutions from last year. Let's see if I actually stuck to any of them...

1. Get comfy with making my own mods for a better fit.
I think I made some progress with this one, but only minimally. I started adding some extra length and increases/decreases, but nothing as ambitious as adding short rows, etc. So, still room for improvement.

2. Only make projects that I know I will wear.
Of all my resolutions, this one I stuck to. I can't think of any knit collecting dust sitting in the back of the closet. They all get action.

3. Make a fair isle sweater - perhaps a Dale...
I made some mittens? And some mitts... Still no sweater.

4. Do a little designing of my own.
I made a hat. I guess that counts albeit a pretty sad contribution.

5. Be a better blogger!
Until the past couple months, I would say I made good on this one. I think blogging will always ebb and flow for me. Consistency is an issue for me. Not just with blogging.

Phew, not as bad as i expected!

For all of you still sticking with me, despite being silent the past couple months, I've been all kinds of crafty. I'll spread out the FOs over the next couple weeks.

Pile 'o FOs

To start off the FO show, here's my most recent FO:

BIRDIE MITTENS

Before selecting this project, I made a crafty resolution (it was December. See what I mean?). Rather than queueing projects and being perpetually behind, I will only cast on for projects for which my fingers and needles itch. I will no longer feel any sense of duty toward queued projects.

With this in mind, I bought yarn and cast on for these the same day!

[Pattern] Bird in Hand Mittens by Kate Gilbert
[Yarn] Ella Rae Classic, Fuschia and Olive Green

at least my hands are warm...

[Needles] Size 1 Addis
[Mods] None. The pattern was perfect, as is.

pretty picots

Much more to come!

Happy Halloween & some FOs

2007-10-31T14:09:00.000-04:00

Thanks, everyone, for the Cherry / Unripe Banana love! I'm smiling, you just can't see.

Turns out I much needed all your happy, smiley comments because I've had a rough couple days. I was supposed to run the NYC Marathon on Sunday, but injured my foot a few weeks back. I thought I could push through, but finally resigned to the fact that I could permanently mess up my foot and might not even finish. And it only took two sports medicine doctors strongly advising me not to run to reach this conclusion. 5 months of training down the tubes:( There's always next year, though! And I know this is nothing in the whole scheme of things.

Anyway, Happy Halloween! Check out our pumpkins:

Mine's the scary one with fangs, J's has the buck teeth. I love mine. Tee hee.

This is our first year in cookie-cutter suburbia, so we've got high hopes of trick-or-treaters trailing in and out of house all night (as long as my pumpkin doesn't scare them away). Otherwise, we'll be getting fat on all the peanut butter cups we bought.

In the wake of a finished sweater, I cast on for a few quick-hit gifts. First, this long-overdue hat for my dad:

UTOPIA HAT

Pattern: Utopia Hat by Smariek
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8 in Charcoal, less than 2 balls
Needles: Size 8 Addis

Comments: all positive for the hat, yarn, and pattern. This hat was a long time coming and was made to match the Sharfik I made for my dad almost 2 years ago!

I also whipped up these super quick socks for our friend's brand new baby.

BABY SOCKS

crappy picture, but it was a quick shot taken at night in case I forgot the next morning (which I did)

Pattern: Baby Socks
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn in Cirque leftover from these
Needles: Size 1 Addis
Comments: Quick, easy and a good use for leftover sock yarn. It was a bit touch and go by the end - I was running on yarn fumes and the second sock almost got a "special" mismatched toe. There will be plenty more of these as a procreating trend has broken out in our circle of friends.

Next time, I'll tell you how I doubled my stash at Farmhouse Yarns:

Done: Unripe Banana aka Cherry

2007-10-16T17:01:00.000-04:00

It's been so long since I've written an FO report, I forget how! Yikes. After months of toil on this project, it's finally complete.

UNRIPE BANANA AKA CHERRY

Pattern. Cherry by Anna Bell.

Yarn. Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton in Freesia. 7 and a smidge balls bought dirt cheap at Webs last spring.

Size. 36

Needles. Size 3 and 6 Addis

Time to Knit. July ?? to October 15. I knit the swatch last summer, though.

Other materials. 5 dark red buttons, chocolate brown velvet ribbon.

Comments on Pattern.

Well written and clear. You have to keep track of the stitch pattern as you decrease and increase, which might cause trouble for beginners. Overall, the stitch pattern keeps things interesting, but not overwhelming. It kept me engaged the duration of the project, which is quite a feat!

If you decide to make this definitely spring for an extra ball of yarn. For the size I made (and the size above, in fact), the pattern calls for 7 balls of yarn and I used a bit of an 1/8. Adn I didn't even make the string belt. You might have better luck, but I prefer to play on the safe side. Especially when it takes me a year to make a project.

The yarn.

Like tons of you out there, I'm a wool kind of girl. This cotton didn't make a full convert out of me, but I definitely enjoyed using it and give it two thumbs up. It's soft and light and makes a beautiful, drapey fabric. The yarn's quite splitty, but it is cotton. Oh, and as it's available in a boatload of colors, too, which makes it a nice go-to cotton.

Mods. I added some extra length. A standard for me. Not really a mod, but I used a tubular cast on.

Final Verdict. I'm loving this sweater. The only way I could love it any more would be if I finished it two months ago when it was still short sleeve cotton cardigan weather. Oh, I'll still wear it. Don't you worry. It fits well and matches the rest of my wardrobe. Destined to be a staple, I'm sure.

I have to admit I'm kicking myself for not casting off using the tubular method. The ribbing / castoff of the button band and collar look homeade to me. Blocking helped, but not enough for my critical eye.

Still to be done, but probably never will be because I'm lazy and there's newer projects out there. The yarn belt. And those little buttons that go between the big buttons to prevent gaping.

Unripe Banana Blocking

2007-10-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

Wow, two posts in as many days?

This sweater resembles anything but a cherry, so I've re-named it unripe banana. That's the exact color of the yarn - unripe bananas. Gross to eat, but lovely to wear.

So, unripe banana is blocking as we speak. I'm looking forward to a seaming party tonight! Okay, no one's looking foward to seaming, but I am excited about a new, long-overdue sweater!

Stay tuned!

Socktober, Baby!

2007-10-10T12:39:00.000-04:00

I'll spare you the details of my month-long absence. They seem to be frequent in these parts. I just have to get back into the habit of blogging. And summer, too. I blame summer. Anyway, it's Socktober, baby!

I have two pairs of socks on the needles - well, one actually on the needles and half ball of yarn awaiting cast on to fulfill its destiny of second sock. You've already seen one (wow, did I really start these so long ago?). The other?

As soon as this beauty came in the mail, I knew it was meant to become some of Pam at Flint Knits Marigold Socks.

I cast on for these socks on a big, smelly Greyhound bus headed for NYC, where I picked up a cruise ship and sailed around the Caribbean for 10 days. The sock was my constant poolside companion and hit the spot for some interesting, yet not exhausting knitting. But, since I've been home it's been abandonded for some sweater WIP's (namely, Cherry). Hey, they're bigger and more noticeable sitting there wanting to be finished and worn.

Me and the Marigolds have since rekindled our love and I'm *almost* finished with the first one. I pledge to at least finish this sock (and maybe the other embossed leaves) by the end of the month. Nothing like Socktoberfest to give you a good kick in the pants, huh?

Playing Catch Up

2007-08-28T18:38:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in the last....er, month, but I've been keeping true to my WIPs, and um, adding a few new ones. It's all good, though. Promise.

Flock of Triangles Quilt
I'm getting a little deeper into the quilt process. I've spent a few evenings (well, for what little time I can handle in my sweltering, AC-free, craft room) cutting out squares and triangles for my quilt. I keep reminding myself that the extra care I put into making the pieces perfect will pay off later.

After cutting, I started a little excel chart indicating placement of all the triangles.

Then, assigned each fabric a number.

FINALLY, I can start sewing!!

Hip, Bad Ass Dress
I also got some fabric for this dress, too. I've been following Vogue 8280 (thanks again for the tip, Veronique!) loosely and felt like the dress was gonna be my greatest sewing project to date until I reached the sleeves (okay, I won't lie. Those flanges were a real bitch, too). Anyway, I made some minor tweaks to the sleeves (maybe they could be consider major - I did fully eliminate a pattern piece), and somehow the dress resembles more of a Colonial Williamsburg costume than my hip, coolest dress ever.

Hi, I like poufy sleeves. Civil War Reenactments this way.

Rest assured, there will be plenty more tweaking in the sleeve dept. Moving on - what do you think about the fabric? Too risky? I'm a fashion risk taker (or so I flatter myself), but something that elicits pointing and snickering is a different story. I just couldn't pass up the sparrow fabric.

Cherry
And to keep consistent wtih the blog's title, here's a little knitting for you... Cherry!

I'm up to the armpits on this one and it's flying by. When it actually gets pulled out, that is.

Pretty tubular caston

If you're still reading this, hope everyone is enjoying these last few weeks of summer. I know in CT night's coming earlier and it's dark when I wake up for my morning run.

Baby Blankets & Booties

2007-07-31T14:54:00.000-04:00

I'm finished with all my baby knitting:

Pattern Big Bad Baby Blanket
Source Stitch 'n Bitch Handbook
Yarn Blue Sky Organic Cotton in Nut and Bone, 4 skeins each
Needles Size 8 Addis
Time to Knit Blanket #2 - July 7 - July 15; Blanket #3 - July 17-July 26.
Comments

Great pattern, great blanket.
I used larger gauge yarn, so my blankets came out a big larger than the original. I made sure to end each ball of yarn at the end of a row. Because of the thick, organic texture of the yarn, the weaving was really noticeable in a stockinette portion. The garter stitch hid them well, though.
The yarn was a drapey dream while knitting, but stiffened up a goot bit after washing / blocking . I'm sure (I hope ) it will soften with use.

Mods I opted for garter stitch instead of seed stitch just for timesavings and peace of mind (seed stitch is beautiful, but takes me SO LONG).

The third and final baby blanket was the perfect project to keep my hands busy while ready the 7th HP book. I sat outside, Miles at my feet and read and knit. Pure bliss! I'm so sad that it's all over and done with - the books, not blankets!

Miles at my feet, Zoe, Harry Potter and the Big Bad Baby Blanket on my lap

I'm pleased wtih both blankets and will certainly knit more in the future. I gifted tfhe third blanket at a baby shower this weekend. I didn't get to see the mother open it (it was a couple's shower and they opened gifts afterward), but hopefully she'll was happy with it. I just need to make a date to gift the third and all the blankets will be in their happy homes.

I met the recipient of the first blanket this weekend--what a cutie! So cute, I raced home and told J how much I wanted one. [That feeling lasted just a few minutes.] The baby's mother tells me the blanket sits on her nursing chair and that she uses it just as much as the baby. Makes it all worth it! Because I couldn't go meet a brandy new baby empty-handed, I finished these booties I started way back in May. (They were originally supposed to accompany the blanket as the shower gift).

More fiberlicious fun for you. Megan's right, it's addicting. Soon, I'll break away from fruit.

Pattern Christine's Baby Booties
Yarn Dale Baby Ull in sage green, leftover from these
Needles Size 3 Addis
Time to knit May 3 - July 29
Mods None
Comments I was worried these looked a bit "moon-booty," but they look better on baby feet. Phew. This pattern rules and it's free. What could be better?

With all my committments out of the way, I started on a long-awaited project - one I swatched for last summer and that's been sitting in my sidebar for months! Progress pics of Cherry soon to come.

Fiberlicious Friday

2007-07-27T12:53:00.000-04:00

I was inspired to partake in some fiberlicious fun when I noticed these cherries were the exact same color of the latest STR Rockin Sock Club Yarn, Firebird.

Mt. Ranier cherries are my favorite. Pure summer.

Then, I noticed these other cherries were the exact same color as one of last year's skeins, Mustang Sally.

Yum. Fiber.

In other news, I went to the fabric store to find well, not much potential for my pretty new dress and have been relegated to the internets. With the bazillion choices and my distrust of accurate coloring, I'm paralyzed by indecision. On a positive note, the lack of pretty, distracting fabric hanging around begging to be made into a dress has enabled me to finish both baby blankets! More on all that later.

Have a good weekend!

I'm obsessed.

2007-07-20T12:35:00.000-04:00

I'm obsessed with this dress.

This is just a picture from Amy Butler's site - no pattern has released yet. I swear, my favorite designs from her site are always the ones without patterns! I've been drooling over this dress for awhile now, just mustering up the courage to make my own version (I even carry a printout in my purse! If I had a locker, I'd hang it up in there next to my picture of Brad Pitt. Maybe I'm getting carried away...). This is how my mind works - I stare and drool, obsess, let that fade, wait for it to come back, drool, and so on. Sometime in the cycle of hemming and hawing, I'll reach a new level of obsession, drop everything, and impulse shop (for some reason shopping for the materials makes me feel just as good as making the final product). I think we've reached that level. Well, actually I reached that level on July 3. Unfortunatley, the only local fabric shop that's not joann's was closed for vacation (grr, didn't they know I needed fabric?). Stupid me even drove all the way there to find out! (I did go to Joann's afterwards to see if I could find some fabric, but left emptyhanded). So today, I will set out to the fabric store (after calling ahead, of course) for fabric to make this beauty. Oh, and curtains--my next home improvement project. Raw silk curtains won't be too $$$, right? ha!

Back to my soon to be beautiful dress... I've actually never made a dress with a pattern (I'm a big fan of the "try it on as you go" school of thought), but this one seems more daunting with those fancy sleeves and all. Sleeves that a pucker will just ruin. Plus, there's no shot of the back. That's cool, though. I have big plans for the back. I'd like it to look like a built in shrug, but with a peep hole between the two fabrics. The seaming could get tricky, though...hmmm... Still brainstorming, obviously.

Blanket? What blankets? Okay, I didn't forget about the baby blankets. And admittedly, the dress project may have to wait a bit (but at least I'll have pretty fabric to stare at). But, I finished the second one and am 1/4 done with the third. I see a light at the end of the tunnel!

And the quilt? Well, no real excuse. Can't explain how the obsession strikes! I'm sure all the other ADD crafters understand. :)

Have a good weekend !

Blankets, more Blankets and a little Rafting

2007-07-17T17:17:00.000-04:00

Lots of babies on the way around here. It don't think I'm the only one as baby knits seem to be populating blogland in record numbers these days. Hopefully all you baby knit knitters were smarter than me and chose to diversify your patterns a bit. All that's on the front burner of my knitting queue are Big Bad Baby Blankets. A total of three for this summer. I bought yarn for this one and another at the same time. Then, another pregnancy was announced and I bought more yarn for another. It seemed like a brilliant plan. I finished the first in two weeks, the yarn is soft, the pattern easy, and the baby showers were cropping up quickly. I'm about 10 rows from finishing blanket number two and desperate to work on my quilt. I sneak in a bit of cutting every once in awhile, but usually make it back to the ball and chain blankets.

Anyway, that was a whole lot of bitching when really the blankets are fun, easy knits and I really think all the babies (and mommies) will love them (they better!). I just like having an option from project ADD. Because of the static knitting, I have no knitting pictures.

Instead, I offer some pics from my weekend up in Maine.

Not our raft, but my best river shot. It's tough taking shots while trying to paddle and stay in the raft!

We went up to The Forks for a white water rafting trip (my first) on the Kennebec River. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun - what could be better than an all natural (well, mostly - the rapids get a power boost from the dam) water roller coaster? Now I want to quit my job and become a rafting guide (surely they'd hire me with my one day of experience, right?). The icing on the cake was hanging out with Lobstah and some other friends.

me after a quick dip (on purpose, I didn't fall in) in the river. Just a teensy bit cold. At least the water tasted good!

Grasshoppers on my Mind

2007-07-03T12:18:00.000-04:00

Before I start, I'm going to apologize for the lengthy post - I'm still getting back into the swing of regular posting.

Thanks for all the nice comments on the house. It's hard work, but every day the house is more comfortable and more home., so it's worth it. And it will be cool to look back in a few years and make fun of all the sellers' 70s furniture all over again. Even more disturbing, I would have loved half that decor in my college apartment!

Moving on...The past couple months, there have been several grasshopper sightings round these parts.

EXHIBIT A - Sunshine Yarns in Grasshopper on its way to becoming Embossed Leaves Socks.

EXHIBIT B - Grasshopper Cupcakes. Parikha's refreshing warm weather confection (sorry, I can't figure out how to link to the exact post, but the one from 5/31). I kept some for our house and J brought the rest into work - apparently his coworkers were fighting over them! They are just that good. I'll be sure to make these again. Thanks, Parikha!

EXHIBIT C - Rockin Sock Club March installment - Walkin' on the Wild Tide yarn paired with Grasshopper pattern. So, I'm not actually making the grasshopper pattern, but it still counts. At least, I think it counts.

------ End of grasshopper-related content------

Okay, so there's been more crafty goodness outside the realm of grasshoppers. I finally pulled out my Amy Butler Belle fat quarter pack for a Flock of Triangles Quilt from Denyse Schmidt Quilts.

That's about as far as I am. I refolded the fabric to take pictures. Okay, I might be a little farther, but not much. I just washed and ironed the quarters. Anyone have a trick for preventing all the loose threads from knotting up?

And, I've been baking some other favorites... Apple Pie, perhaps my favorite food. I used to request this over birthday cake!

Hopefully a finished Hourglass sweater soon! Have a happy 4th everyone!

A Blast from the Past

2007-06-19T16:52:00.000-04:00

Lots going on in these parts. Obviously the house reno takes up loads of our time. We're slowly going room by room, but it's finally starting to come together. The house wasn't in disrepair by any means, but definitely had a strong 70s vibe and way too much nasty, old carpet for our taste. The upstairs is done and we finally made out way downstiars. If you're interested in seeing some of our improvements, I created a collection in my flickr account.

The other big time sucker is that I'm running the NYC Marathon again!! This year, I'm running with a charity group that supports research for Crohn's disease (among others), a condition my husband suffers from. It will be nice to run with a greater purpose in mind this year. I'm training with a group this year, which I think will be immensely helpful (and I'll get to meet new people). And I won't have to run any 20 milers alone. I enjoy my alone time as much as anyone, but I think I'll appreciate companionship even more.

For some crafty content, an offiical writeup of the 2nd weekender bag....

My sister, the kind, generous person she is, gave her weekender a little photoshoot just for this here blog. (Thanks, Sara!) Look familiar? It looks almost identical to mine. It is, with the exception of the lining and cording fabrics and a little weekender know-how under my belt.

Here's the breakdown:

Pattern Amy Butler Weekender Bag

Fabric Amy Butler Sunbloom Collection, Lotus Print in Parsley. 2 yards? Getting this fabric was practically impossible. I went through all the links on Amy's page and kept coming up empty. After emailing back and forth about potential replacements with my sister, she gave me a few final options. I set out to order the replacement fabric and stumbled upon a fabric store with some sunbloom in stock! I surprised my sister with it, which was nice because she had really wanted this pattern. As this was 7 months ago, I can't remember where I ordered the fabric. And I really doubt they would still have it anyway.

Lining was just a brown home dec fabric from Joann's. I wasn't a big fan of this lining material (but it's not really fair to compare anything to Amy's pretty fabric)

Zipper bought from Zipperstop. I heart this place. I ordered the brown zipper without reading that only certain colors can be purchased individually. You have to purchase special colors in bulk. Just because they're that super over there, they ordered this one special for me. The zipper is of so much higher quality than the one on my bag. I bought the only 30" zipper at Joann's for mine and it gets caught and really becomes a hindrance when I'm opening and closing my bag. I was smarter this time, and bought a nice one. Plus, this way I selected the matching color.

Other notions Everything else I bought at Joann's. And I only had to go once this time around!

Well, that's pretty much it! I didn't make any drastic changes from my first bag, just improved my technique. No more weekender bags for me (for awhile at least). I'm sure I'll make one for my mom at some point. The three of us just seem to have the same, good taste!

Finished Cirque Socks!

2007-06-06T18:14:00.000-04:00

Yikes, I knew it's been awhile, but I didn't realize it's been this long! Moving will do that to you, I guess. I'm in awe of all you bloggers who find time to keep up with the blogging schedule during big life events.

We're all moved in finally! It's truly amazing how much time, energy (and money - I should just hand my paychecks directly to the bank and Home Depot). We're still painting and updating, but the house is beginning to feel more and more like home. I'm sure it will feel even more homey when we have furniture! Sleeping on the floor is getting old, especially when you're sleeping face to face with a black lab with dog breath. Oh, and guess what? We have two (two!) peony bushes (plants?)! I'm working on a before / after slideshow thingy in flickr for all you hgtv-types.

anyway, knitting! I finished these socks a good while ago, but have been behind on posting.

CIRQUE SOCKS

Pattern. Just your basic 3x1 rib, top down

Yarn. Sundara Sock in Cirque.

Needles. Size 1 Addis.

Dates Knitted. 4/21 - ?? somewhere around May 18. Everything after that is a blur.

Comments. Not much to say about these socks. They were about as cut and dry as it gets. I could be imagining it, but I swear the pooling isn't as evident in reality. But even if it is, it's cool with me. I started this project just to work with this yarn. The colors are so vibrant, they almost cool each other down when knitted. Does that make sense? anyway, bottom line. Simple socks good. go buy some sundara yarn.

I took about a million pictures (okay, maybe 20, but that's just as ridiculous) of these socks - the color was just impossible to portray properly. So, here's some extras for your viewing pleasure.

Forgive for no posts - I have FOs!

2007-05-16T10:59:00.000-04:00

Things that have occupied all my time, leaving me no time to post.

1. Spending a long relaxing Mother's Day weekend with my mom, dad, and sister in South Florida. I even knit a bit, but devoted most of my craft time to....

2. Finishing my sister's Weekender Bag, her v. belated xmas gift. Before leaving for Florida, all I had left was to handsew the lining which I finished the last night of our trip in the hotel room. I'm one of those last minute types. Unfortunately I'm also a dumbass and took not one picture of the finished bag - which came out much cleaner than my version. I envisioned a J. Crewish beach photoshoot with lots of sand and my sister frolicking around. Just imagine instead. Ahhh, beach! Amy Butler! Sun!

3. Packing. Did I mention we bought a house? We close on Friday and although we're surrounded by boxes, we've barely started packing. Luckily, our new house is only a mile away!

4. Passing my insurance test. Check that one off the to do list!

5. Hanging out at this real ale festival with Lobstah and other cool people.

6. Finishing these Knee socks...

Pattern. 48 stitches, toe up. I used Diana's method of increasing, as I did with these socks.
Yarn. Yarntini Sport in Luxury, 1 350 yd. skein from Pure Knits. Plus a little Dale Baby Ull when I ran out.
Needles. Size 3 Addis.
Time Knitted. A month or two. These have been finished for awhile....
Comments. Sportweight yarn flies! Even with the added thickness, these socks are cozy and well-fitting. See for yourself ...

Miles thinks they're cozy (notice in the vesper knee highs, he's also digging the socks. too funny)

In the interest of full disclosure, I must say I have yet to wear these. It's been pretty warm, so I can blame it on that, but it's mostly because they fall down. I just have to figure out the best method of adding elastic.

Because I'm a dork.

7. Keeping Zoe off another FO, the Big Bad Baby Blanket

She crawled up on this the second I layed it flat.

Pattern. Big Bad Baby Blanket
Source. Stitch 'n Bitch Handbook
Yarn. Blue Sky Alpacas, Organic Cotton in Nut, 4 skeins
Needles. US 8 Addis
Time Knitted. 4/20/07 - 5/3/07
Mods. Subbed yarn, larger finished size.
Comments. This is a great baby shower gift. Great yarn, easy peasy blanket. My only complaint is that the ends were a bit obvious (to me anyway) after they were weaved in. The yarn is a bit rugged, so hopefully non-knitters won't notice.

Okay, back to packing and knocking more stuff off the to do list.

Another Cast On

2007-04-27T12:45:00.000-04:00

Thanks everyone for the comments on the baby blanket beginnings. I wish I could email everyone individually - I realize this has become a common complaint around here - but blogger doesn't make it too easy. I think I might need to download haloscan or a similar application. Anyone have any luck with this type of program?

I cast on for another project, but it's socks so it doesn't count. And I actually cast on a while back, like in March. Oops, who knew I was such a secret keeper? They just haven't been on my mind too much because I've spent so little time on them - mostly during some t rides in Boston.

Here's where I was at this weekend:

I'm about halfway down the foot now, but this is my latest photo. The yarn is the important part now anyway, right?

Ooh la la! I'm such a sucker for bright, bold colors. I was once referred to as "the girl who always wears bright colors." This is Sundara Yarn in Cirque purchased about a year ago - before it was cut throat buying her yarn. I must say I understand why. This is my second pair of socks knitted with her yarn, and it truly is fabulous. The color saturation is unbeatable* and the finished product handles quite a bit of wear and tear. Not quite the sproing or softness of STR, but I dare say I think it wears a tad (just a tad!) better - and I machine wash. At least with the base yarn she was using last year.

I hope to finish these off, so I can cast on for the latest STR Rockin' Sock Club shipment.

*I actually cast on for a Chevron Scarf with this yarn and some leftover Fairgrounds from these socks, but decided the colors needed to be on their own to fully show off the rich, jewel-like colors.

Knitting for Babies

2007-04-21T11:53:00.000-04:00

I started a new project with a deadline. I'm not finished with any of my other WIPs, but I have a deadline - a pretty good excuse, I'd say. Here's the start...

It's the Big Bad Baby Blanket from SNB Handbook. My friends are getting the baby bug (is it insensitive to call it a "bug?"), so I have to up my game on baby knits. My friend requested booties, but I wanted to supplement the booties with another gift. I chose Blue Sky Organic Cotton after scouring the internets for a baby blanket appropriate yarn and consulting moms from work (I know zero about babies- probably evident considering I likened having one with a bug). I was originally planning on some Cascade Superwash, but worried the baby might be allergic to wool. I did think what EZ would say about that, but I'm not sure all mothers would share her opinion about putting a baby in wool. And I didn't buy plastic yarn! I've never worked with BSOC, but chose it because it's all natural, contains no dyes and who wouldn't want their precious little baby's sensitive skin next to something this soft? The baby's room is sage and yellow, so I think "nut" will be a good match. The fabric is so drapey and soft - a perfect combination for a blanket. Now I want one (blanket, not baby)!!

There's another baby in our circle of friends to arrive in the fall, so I ordered some yarn for another blanket, but in the natural color...

what's that in the back there? could it be a weekender bag in progress? just waiting for a zipper to arrive in the mail...

Kind of weird how the natural color is in hank form and the nut in a skein, huh? Also, the nut can be machine washed and the natural can't. Have any idea why? Did BSA just change their packaging? They're both organic cotton.

Oh, and what's with the green yarn? Since I was already placing an order, I tacked on a kit for the Fitted Tank (I settled on Pickle - thanks for your input everyone!) I won't be casting on for a while, obviously. I'm just going to admire the beautiful green in the meantime - the same green I'm trying to convince J to paint the craft room / office in our new house. I have my work cut out for me on succeeding with that!

As a side note, I ordered from fabulousyarn.com (which i highly recommend) where the discount policy is essentially the more you buy, the more you save. I ended up saving $30 with the discounts, covering the entire tank kit! How could I not buy it, right?

By the way, any of you other knitter / runner types, check out this article about a marathoner who knit the entire race!!

Enjoy the weekend! It's sure to be a nice one!

My Bookshelf, Project Spectrum Style

2007-04-15T14:10:00.000-04:00

I know I promised knitting pics last time, but it's just way too ucky outside for photography. Luckily, I took some photos on Friday. I saw this on Megan's, The Knitting Philistine and Lolly's blogs and am ripping off their idea. I just love looking at someone's book choices - it's like digging through someone's trash, butless gross.

Green Books.

I put this picture first because it makes me look the smartest. Look at all those thick scholarly anthologies! English majors, I'm sure you recognize the Nortons. Those two skinny books are my green knitting books - Fitted Knits is the bookshelf's most recent addition.

Yellow Books.

Sorry, these titles are a bit harder to read. This is probably the most accurate blend of the genres found on our bookshelf - some classics, knitting, chic lit, comtemporary fiction, eastern thought, and non fiction. All that's really missing are the tons of J's computer manuals. Wait till the white PS month.

Pink Books.

This section is a bit embarrassing. So I like Chic Lit, big deal!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, everyone! I'm going to spend the rest of the day hunkered down and studying.

I'm Gonna be So Clean

2007-04-11T18:15:00.000-04:00

Look what arrived on my doorstep this week!

check out that beautiful packaging!

Some amazing soaps from Megan of Good SoapWorks of Athens aka The Knitting Philistine. We did a little swapping and I couldn't be happier. Even after just opening the envelope, I was enveloped in heavenly scents. This stuff truly is divine!

I could be mistaken, but it looks like Megan used leftovers from the fantabulous Lucy loves Schroeder Chevron scarf for the yarn bows! I feel like I'm in possession of something famous!

Thanks, Megan! Everyone else: go buy some soap!

Aside from me smelling really good, this week has brought lots of stockinette knitting and to do lists. I don't have pics of the st st because I'm a terrible (lazy) blogger, but will soon. Promise. And thanks for all the opinions and recommendations from my last post. I'm still not sure what I'm knitting next, I have way too many WIPs. After I finish up some stuff, I'll choose something!

(If you don't care about non-knitting content, now would be a good place to stop reading)

The to do lists stem from me occupying my free time with reality tv and knitting and then on a whim deciding to accomplish a myriad of lofty goals, make all kinds of lists, buy planners, add more things to the list, etc. All within strict time constraints, of course. remember my holiday list? Ha! Who knows why I do this, but that's just how I roll. In any case, here's a high level view of what I want to accomplish by mid-may. Feel free to laugh in my face.

1. Take GMATs and do well. You should know I haven't taken a math class since HS.
2. Apply to B-School.
3. Pack. Did I mention we bought a house and close May 18? Luckily we never finished unpacking when we moved to this place. Who ever thought that would work out to our advantage? So far, I packed one box of books. I'd say that's a good start.
4. Finish my sister's overdue Weekender Bag. How many months ago was Christmas?
5. Make baby blanket & booties for shower first week of May. How long could a baby blanket take? Babies are small, right?
6. Design invites for husband's stepfather's birthday roast. As in your-closest-friends-and-family-stand-up-and-mock-you kind of roast.
7. Take Insurance Exam. An obvious barrel of laughs. I don't have a choice for this one; I'm already signed up and my company is paying for it.
Even I realize I'm out of my mind...still more...
8. Train for half marathon (for June 3. a little bit out)
9. Make cute amy butler knock off bag before my Mother's Day Florida Trip.
10. Teach Miles how to read and play the saxophone. I just wanted to see if you were still reading:)

Phew. It felt good to get that off my chest. I usually stick to knitting content round here, except for the sporadic 100 Things I started a while back, but that seems too blatant to actually tap into my personality. Every writing class I ever took engrained "Show, Don't Tell," and I'm doing the exact opposite with the 100 Things. Anyway, I'm struggling for a balance with the blog between being too narcisistic and being cold. I don't want to be some faceless (although I'm often headless in my FO photos) knitter behind the sweaters and socks (with ridiculously good-looking pets), you know? Just thinking "out loud" I guess. Thanks for reading (if you made it this far).

Back soon with real knitting content! There's actually been knitting!

Spring Knitting

2007-03-30T14:09:00.000-04:00

I have all sorts of spring projects swimming around my head. I'm a list maker and where better a place for a list than ze blog?

CHERRY by Anna Bell.

I've had the yarn for this cute little cardi since last summer (bought wicked cheap from Webs), but let it lie in favor of some fall projects. This is a definitely, most likely (how's that for definitive?) the next on the needles after hourglass (probably, maybe. ha!).

FITTED TANK by Blue Sky Alpacas.

Something about htis pattern just calls to me. Maybe it's the simple lines appropriately paired with jeans or a printed skirt. It just rings with versatility and would work for both work and play, a requirement with my knits. Plus, I've never tried Blue Sky anything and the selection of cotton colors hits the spot. The question: Should I go with Pickle (a true green) or Pumpkin (a more mellow orange than the Poppy pictured)? And something about Tomato feels right, too. And Aloe's pretty, too....Thoughts? I'm the most indecisive person ever. It's tough because none of the LYS nearby carry this line and I've been burned by internet color speculation before.

DOLLAR AND A HALF CARDIGAN by Veronik Avery.

This piece stuck out to me even from the teeny tiny thumbnails on the IW site. It seems I'm not the only one as it's popping up all over blogland. I think I'll pick up some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece as a cost-effective option with plenty of color selection (although I'll probably stick with the cocoa color or maybe a chartreuse).

ORANGINA by Stefanie Japel.

I must knit this. Last year I thought, "oh, that's last year's bandwagon, knit one of the newer patterns." Trouble is, I just can't shake this pattern. I'm thinking I'll make it in white or maybe a tomato color if I don't make the tomato Ribbed Tank. Or teal.

SIZZLE by Wendy Bernard.

A perfect way to sample some delicious yarn and yield a sexy tank! No clue about yarn selection, maybe bamboo or something lustery and nighttime-appropriate.

An Update in Numbers

2007-03-25T16:25:00.000-04:00

NUMBER OF...

... inches knit on Hourglass - 15 I'm up to the armpits. Ahh, what a lovely place to be.

... movies watched this weekend - 3 (Blood Diamond, Stranger than Fiction, Casino Royal) I recommend all, particularly the first two. And I don't always watch this many movies in a weekend. I usually watch really bad reality TV instead.

... Golden Retrievers Miles got to run around with on Saturday - 6 (!)

And yes, two (males) are um, humping. I swear I didn't choose this picture to be creepy or "funny" - that dog was on top of the other dog in every single picture! (The other dog barely noticed - he just went about his business as usual...) Anyway, dominance issues abound when you put 7 dogs together!

... Treats baked by moi - 1. This is the main ingredient.

Can you guess what I made?

... longtime FO's I'm finally coming clean about - 1 ....

The Counterpane Pouch

Oops. I casually mentioned this project awhile back, it was made for a good friend whose birthday was back in January. She reads the blog (one of my few friends who even know it exists), so I kept it a secret. I finished the knitting on time, but lagged on the finishing. Another two weeks went by before I finally made it to the post office (which is two blocks from my house.) She received it in um, March. Yeah, oops. Sorry, Sly! Isn't it more fun to get b-day presents when you're least expecting them?

Every piece of this project is recycled or taken from the stash. The yarn is leftovers from my Prairie Tunic and the lining an old (but barely worn) shirt. I even tied up the finished pouch with ribbons from the shirt. I love when everything falls into place.

Pattern. Counterpane Pouch
Source. Handknit Holidays
Yarn. Jaeger Sienna 4-ply in lilac
Needles. US3 Addis
Time Knitted. ? early January to mid-February
Mods. Subbed yarn, added an extra pattern repeat.

Comments. A fun project. The counterpane pattern really pops and is a perfect style for a pouch or bag. I enjoyed watching it come alive. I do wish I made the pouch a bit taller, so it could double as a pouch or purse. It could probably be an evening bag, but would be awkward if you carry a lot of junk around. My friend isn't one of those types, so I think it will work for her. The oblong shape adds some aesthetic interest and is probably more comfortable to wear tucked under your arm than if it were more squarish.

The lining as a shirt:

And just for fun, here's a crazy action shot of Miles from Saturday. Look at his ears!

Enjoy the last few hours of the weekend!

Wicked Awesome

2007-03-19T16:33:00.000-04:00

Thanks for all your comments on my last post! Miles is getting a big ego from all the compliments! He is pretty darn cute, though:)

Anyway, I finally took some pics of Wicked...

Pattern.

Wicked by the Zephyr Girls
Size. 32-34. I waffled on the size. The sizes are actually size ranges and my usual size was smack dab in the middle. I started with the bigger size, but then changed to the smaller size. I'm indecisive like that.
Yarn. Artyarns Supermerino in 122, 6 hanks, *all* of it. Purchased from Sarah's Yarns (on sale!). Apparently, I have no imagination because I used the same color as the Zephyr Girls.
Needles. Size 7 32" Addi Turbos, Size 7 Crystal Palace dpns
Dates Knitted. Not 100% sure because I didn't keep good blog records, but I think February 20 to March 13? I knit this is spurts because I kept changing my mind about size or fearing I would run out of yarn.

Modifications. I knit an extra 4" for the body. Yup, 4! I'm not exceptionally tall (I'm 5'5/5'6), but this would be a "belly" sweater on me had I not added on the extra inches. So I just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn. I seem to run into this issue on every sweater I knit, but never on sweaters I buy. Weird, huh? In any case, I'm really happy with the final product and will definitely keep this in mind on future sweaters. I've always added an extra inch or two, but it turns out four is what I need. And I swear, I don't have some disproportiate torso.

If I knit this again (which I definitely plan on), I will knit all ribbing with smaller needles. This is a no-brainer, but the pattern didn't call for it so I just didn't think about it. I would also make the pocket taller. It looks too short on my version because of the added inches to the body.

Comments. This is easily my best fitting, most comfortable sweater to date (handknit at least). I've already worn it three days this week. (Does anyone else wear their handknits to death at first or am I just dirty?) This was my first top down sweater and I want to knit ten more. Why seam sweaters when you can not seam sweaters? Plus, you can try it on as you go! It's like discovering the beauty of toe-up socks all over again!

The pattern was well written and comes with options to customize with different yarn, longer sleeves, shaping or no shaping, etc. And it has a pocket! Who doesn't love pockets?

This yarn is like buttah! And it's superwash! I want to knit 8 more sweaters with it. And maybe a pair of pants! I felt like I was knitting a sweater in sock yarn, it was so decadent! Must. Buy. More. Also, the yarn blooms significantly. I was concerned it would be tight pre-blocking, but after blocking it fit like a glove. The yarn suggests knitting from two different hanks to prevent pooling, but I just knit from one. I can't tell where the new hanks start.

I think that's about it. This sweater is a ridiculously quick knit. I don't consider myself an especially fast knitter, but I felt like I was done before I finished. If I kept my motivation up the whole time, I think I could have finished in a week, which is just insane for me.

Coming Clean

2007-03-15T16:44:00.000-04:00

That's for all the lovely comments about the monkey socks! It's especially nice to see some new commenters:)

Hmmm, I think I forgot to mention something... I kind of started and finished a sweater project without one post to the blog. Rounds of stockinette just seem to fly by, I guess. Because the sky is gray today (we're getting a noreaster! wha??) and I'm without the energy to coax some decent shots from my camera, here's a sneak peak and a promise of more photos to come.

Can you guess what it is? Let's just say it shares a name with one of the most used words in my lexicon and is New England's version of "hella" or just plain "really." If you still can't guess, stay tuned for some better pictures (or you could just look at my tags...). Also, notice the blue?

Evidentally this project only whet my appetite for the tactile sensation of luxurious yarn and stockinette in the round, because I already pulled some yarn out to restart a project. All I need is decadent fiber to keep me entertained, I guess. Plus, with Demi also in progress, a brainless project is required.

Remember this yarn? Click here to jog your memory. The sadness has finally waned enough for me to look at this yarn again.

Somehow my quick FO photoshoot turned into an all-out Miles photoshoot. He's just such a ham. As soon as the camera is out, he sits and wags his tail and actually poses. How can I resist that? And because I'm a goofy kind of girl and can't get enough of wacky animal shots, here's Miles:

Doesn't he remind you of Geena Davis in Beetlejuice when she's trying to scare away the new family? You know, when she puts her eyes on her tongue?

Monkeying Around

2007-03-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

MONKEY SOCKS

Finished these on Saturday and they haven't left my feet since (well, I did take them off in the shower). These are by far my best fitting, most comfy pair of handkit socks ever. For reals, y'all. Just a satisfying blend of stretchy and warm. In the words of Rach3l Ray, "Yum-O!"

THE STATS
Pattern. Monkey Socks by sock genius, Cookie A.
Source. Knitty.com - New patterns just out!
Yarn. Socks that Rock, Rare Gems
Needles. Size 1 Addis, 40"
Time Knitted. January 31 to March 3
Mods. Nada

Box Bag Tutorial

2007-02-25T16:25:00.000-05:00

A couple of you inquired whether I made this pouch based on a tutorial or pattern and if not, if I could provide one. Ask and you shall receive!

I've learned so much from tutorials out on the internets, I'm happy I can give back for once. Bear with me, though. This is my first tutorial and creating one is much tougher than I imagined. I give anyone who's created a tutorial tons of credit!

I feel obligated to preface this by admitting I'm a trial and error sewer. I make things up as I go along and test things during the sewing process to see if I'm achieving my desired results. Also, I taught myself to sew just playing around on a sewing machine, so I don't always use text book methods. Just wanted come clean before you all jump into this and so you have a little understanding if I did something in a backass way. The pattern works, which is all that matters to me!

Because of the versatility of this pattern, my instructions can be used more as guidelines. You can easily change the pouch dimensions.

Anyway, here's the tutorial. If you need clarification or have any questions, please send me an email or leave a comment.

BOX BAG TUTORIAL

Note: This pattern can be tweaked to create a bag of any dimension you want.

You'll need:
1/4 yard exterior fabric
1/4 yard lining fabric (I used blue for Project Spectrum)
1/4 yard interfacing (weight of your choice. I recommend a medium to heavy-weight.
12" zipper

Step 1. ("collect underpants" --any South Park fans out there?) Cut fabric.

Cut a 16" x 12" (updated dimensions) rectangle of exterior fabric, lining, and interfacing. Choose interfacing that will create the structure you like best. For a more structured pouch, use a heavy interfacing or even Peltex. For something collapsible to toss in your bag, choose a lighter weight interfacing. I used a lighter weight because that's what I had on hand, but I prefer something heavier or at least medium-weight. Iron your fabric if you're feeling motivated (I wasn't today).

2. Sew fabrics together.
Basically, you want to make a tube. Arrange fabrics as you see in the picture below. Interfacing, exterior (rightside up), zipper (wrongside up), lining (wrongside up). Pin fabrics together and sew. Opening the zipper makes the sewing less awkward.

Remove pins, turn pouch rightside out, and topstitch along zipper. (see photo below) This holds the fabrics together neatly.

Turn pouch inside out and sew other side of zipper to opposite end of fabric (to create tube).
Stay consistent with fabric arrangement detailed at the beginning of this step. (somewhat confusing picture below)

This will be somewhat awkward and you will need to stop midway through sewing to open zipper. It also gets tricky sewing around zipper head. If your stitches get out of line, just rip back and try again. A seamripper is your bff.

Turn pouch to right side. You will have one big tube that looks like this:

Topstitch other side of zipper. Again, this will be awkward around the zipper head. Just be sure not to accidentally sew the bottom part, too!

3. Make handle. Cut a piece of exterior fabric 10" x 8" *(If you're using a fat quarter, it's the big rectangle leftover). Fold in half rightside together and sew long edge. Turn rightside out, fold in half lengthwise, and sew along edge. Then, sew along folded edge.

*you can change the length to modify handle size

4. Sew sides. In this step, the more precise your measurements, the more professional your finished pouch will look.
Lay your tube flat and ensure the zipper runs down the exact center of the pouch. This is important!!! Measure the width of the rectangle. Using a sewing marker, mark off the middle third (you can estimate a third, just make sure you mark off equal sections on either side of the zipper) of the pouch.

Sew the center portion from mark to mark. Backstitch over the zipper a few times for added durability. Repeat on other side.

Unzip pouch and put you hand in one of the openings on either side of the sewed portion. Push fabric into a triangle. This is difficult to explain. It's probably easier just to refer to the picture below.

Sew a perpendicular line to your seam from earlier this step, creating a triangle** like below. Repeat this step for the other corner on that side.

**The size of your triangle determines the height of your pouch. For a taller pouch, make a bigger triangle. For a shorter, make a smaller triangle. Whatever size you choose, make sure they are all the same.

inside out view

rightside out view

To attach the handle, you follow the same steps sewing the triangles, but insert the handle in before seaming. I hold onto the triangle from the inside, while I position the handle on the outside (see photo below). Pin triangle in place, so handle doesn't shift. Sew triangle. Repeat for other side.

After you sew all 5 triangles, your pouch will look like this:

5. Trim excess fabric. Cut extra fabric from triangles. Be careful not to cut any seams!!

6. Admire handiwork! Turn rightside out fill with current knitting project, toiletries, or whatever else!

maybe I shouldn't have been so lazy with the ironing...

I hope this all makes sense!

Endpaper Mitts

2007-02-19T08:33:00.000-05:00

Endpaper Mitts

an endpaper mitt & backyard leaves

Pattern: Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts
Yarn: Louet Gems Pearl in Cranberry & Orange (1 skein each)
Needles: US 1 & 2 Addi Turbos
Time Knitted: January 28th (somewhat randomly selected date) to February 17th.
Comments: These are one of my favorite knits ever. They have a more polished look than any of my other knitted mittens or gloves and are sure to get tons of use. Plus, you can't beat having use of your fingers for dog walking, convenient iPod use, and driving. Woo hoo - we've gots a winner. Now I just need some Anemoi Mittens for the really cold days. Like today, brrr.

I felt like a complete weirdo parked in my driveway during this photoshoot. I even tried getting both my hands in the picture with the help of my neck, chin, and the self-timer. I wonder why none of those pics made it to the blog?

And for the next installment of 100 things (11-20)

Ever wonder if one of your regular blog reads is authored by someone you know? Like, the girl you sat next to in Calculus in college. Or if a blogger has something in common with you, that most can't relate to? With that in mind, these next 10 things about me are to see if someone can say, "hey -- me, too!"

11. I went to school in the Shendandoah Valley, land of the Mennonite and home of the Duke dog, my school's mascot. Oh, and countless chicken factories. I miss Virginia. But not because of the chicken factories. Sometimes, we'd find dead chickens in the street and oftentimes the air would get a little funky. Oh, and on a side note, there was always a camoflage painted car in the Wal-Mart parking lot, even before camo was cool. Despite all that, the valley ranks high as one of the country's most beautiful places in my book.

My Friday afternoon treat. Big cappuccino & Grey's Anatomy over the internets. At least until the OC is over and I can watch it primetime.

12. I am 50% Swedish, my dad is 100%. J was really excited when completing a quiz in Maxim way back when where he could check off the "dated a Swedish girl" box.
13. I was a cheerleader from elementary to high school, head cheerleader even.
14. I grew up in Northern New Jersey, right about where the suburbs meet a rural landscape. I didn't know what a Farmer's Market was until college. We just went directly to the farms, something most people don't believe exist in the jerz.
15. I am a Yankee turned Red Sox fan. I don't expect there are many like me, in fact, most will shun me for this confession. It's hard not to get sucked into the contagious Red Sox Fandom, especially living less than a mile from Fenway. Also, from April to October (September in rougher times, it's Red Sox on the TV all the time.
16. Me and J's favorite band is Widespread Panic. We even used a tune they covered for our first dance at our wedding.

17. I love going to see live music. This has become more difficult now that we're old 9-5'ers, but we still try to make it out when we can.

The cat is so cold, she's started hanging out on the radiators. It was 6 degrees when I left for work this am (yes, I was one of the few Americans who had to work today. I'm a little bitter)

18. I feel just as comfortable outside in the woods as my living room watching TV. Well, almost. At least in non-desert areas. We had a bad run in with some scorpions and red ants (those suckers hurt!) in Canyonlands NP. But, put us in the Sierras or Appalachians are we're right at home.

19. My childhood dog was a English Springer Spaniel named Barkley (like in Sesame Street).

20. I was raised on The Brady Bunch and Different Strokes.

okay, some of those last ones were pushing the theme a bit, but I tried.

An excuse to eat chocolate

2007-02-14T17:12:00.000-05:00

First off, thanks to everyone who offered advice or just sympathized with me on my demi situation. I'm heeding a bit of all your advice--swatching a bit more, and if all goes well with that, I'm going to trust my math and proceed. I'm not thinking of the "doesn't work out" scenario. I think all the extra work will be well worth the trouble because if Demi works out, it will be a classic piece of my wardrobe. Wish me luck as I embark on this scary journey!

So, I had these big plans (I always seem to) involving store-bought chocolates and handmade fabric valentines for J. But as we're getting slammed with all these wintery conditions up in New England, I'm home from work today and unable to get to the grocery store (okay, that's a complete lie. I live two blocks from Whole Foods, but it's cold! I've only motivated to go play in the snow with Miles, which doesn't require much motivation. Have you ever played fetch with a black lab puppy in his first real snowstorm? Doesn't get much more entertaining than that. He's still all fired up, but I expect him to pass out any moment. Here's a picture I snapped in between rounds of fetch.

He's all grows up and he's all grows up!

sorry random tangent. Okay, stuck inside, can't go to store. I rummaged around the cabinets and decided to make fudge. I'm especially relieved to get rid of the last of the fluff that's been around since the last time I made fudge (which was three apartments ago - don't even ask why I've been toting it around with me. I have no excuse. I'm just a sad pack rat. Hopefully, all the chemicals in that stuff kept it from going bad...).

tangent again. here's the recipe. It's pretty fool proof and delicious, especially if your a peanut butter addict like me.

Aunt Peggy's Two-Tone Fudge

Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
7 oz. marshmallow fluff
1tsp. vanilla
1 cup peanut butter pieces (or butterscotch if you so desire)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces

In saucepan, combine 1st 4 ingredients. Bring to full boil over medium heat, stir constantly. Lower temps to med-low and cook 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Remove from heat. Add fluff and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
Take 2 cups mixture & add peanut butter pieces & 1/2 cup walnuts. Mix Well.
Pour evenly into greased 9" square pan.
To the remaining mixture, add chocolate pieces, 1/2 cup walnuts. Mix well.
Pour over other mixture in pan.
Chill until firm.

Makes about 2.5 lbs.

Note: You can pretty much add anything else you think sounds good, i.e. other nuts, m&ms, coconut, etc. Although, if you use m&m's, it's probably best just to sprinkle them ontop of the fudge before it starts cooling, so they don't get all melty.

When your inner knitter won't shut the hell up.

2007-02-12T15:05:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm getting a little tired of shushing my inner knitter. After my meticulous, mathematical analysis supported by swatch samples and machine-made sweaters, I determined the exact number of stitches required for my perfect fitting, labor-intensive sweater that is demi. so, why does it look like this?

This is Demi atop my "perfect sweater."

UPDATE:
I just wanted to mention that demi is completely unstretched in this picture. I can stretch it to the size of the sweater without distorting the cables. But I'm worried there won't be much stretch in the finished sweater, unlike the "perfect sweater."

I know, I know, the yarn will bloom and I swatched and used math and swatched! And used math! But, but why is it sooo small? surely it can't bloom that much, right? I can block the heck out of it, but I don't want a lacy cabled sweater you can see through. You know what I'm talking about. I don't want to worry about always wearing a brown shirt under this.

My mind and heart/good common sense are in full-fledged battle mode. I'm one of those emotional, go with your gut types so I'm convinced my math is wrong or that I'm delusional about my size. Am I nuts? What should I do? I thought about just knitting the size medium for the rest of the pieces, but the cable motif on the sides are supposed to match up. Plus, is that even allowed?

The worst part is that instead of relaxing and enjoying (okay, this knit will never be relaxing) this project, I'm worried the whole time. Stressed out, furrowed brow kind of worried. Okay, wah! I'm done.

On a lighter note, I was all sorts of crafty and domestic this weekend!

Ever since I got my grubby little hands on a misocrafty pouch, I've been itching for more. But, as we all know they're the Vesper yarn of knitting accessories. Meaning, you either have to be psychic or just plain lucky to get your hands on one. But suddenly discontent with my ultrafancy ziplocks, I took matters into my own hands and made my own version.

Voila!

These fat quarters (I have an obsession with fat quarters. For some reason I feel like I'm not adding to my stash with these cute little squares) have been sitting in my stash for years and I finally found the perfect use for them. Makes you wonder how many other pieces of craft stash could be better utilized. Because sitting in my craft drawer (okay, fine, dresser) really adds value.

A peek at the lining...

And look how cute they look all organized in a row...

I also made yummy granola. It's a blend of Lolly's recipe, Scout's recipe....

...and other random stuff I found in my pantry.

I'm also down to the toe on my Monkey socks and onto my second endpaper mitt.

Fabric and the Evolution of Joann's (at least for me)

2007-02-07T14:56:00.000-05:00

Last week I set out to Joann's to purchase a red "carpet" for our Hollywood-themed work event. One of the perks of a career in marketing / communications is getting a chance to dapple in the lighter side of business. I settled on a bolt of red felt, which worked spectacularly. I tried to convince my coworkers that we have an arts and crafts day and create some Valentine's Day decorations to adorn the office, but no one was buying it.

I just couldn't resist this. It will make a cute knitting pouch or lining for something...

Anyway while at Joann's, I spent some real time digging through the fiber - the first time in years and made some pretty surprising observations . First, a little background. I used to live at Joann's, The Rag Shop, even the Wal-Mart fabric section (don't judge!) and knew the fabrics by heart. Most of my time was devoted to the wall of calico. My main obsession was batik fabric, which I could never find amongst the standard fabric templates, and funky colors of corduroy. Basically, I just looked for anything different. I would have walked miles for this gem:

this was my "pricey" purchase at $3.95/yd.

But, with a healthy fabric stash and piles of clothes I've hoarded over the years with intentions of cutting up coupled with my recent jonesing for fancy, designer fabrics, it's been some time since I've seriously looked through Joann's (I've been in twice before to round up materials for the Weekender Bag, but managed to stay on task - plus, I didn't know what I was missing!) Oh, and until recently I lived really far away.

MY OBSERVATIONS (both of them):

Joann's is Ginormous. Was my old Joann's just really crappy or they all just five times bigger now? Seriously, my old Joann's had your usual fabric area, home dec, maybe an aisle devoted to unfinished wood, some dried flowers and some baskets thrown in a corner. And also junky kid crafts. These new-fangled Joann's have 5 aisles devoted to scrapbooking, a rubber stamp (?) aisle, a ribbon section bigger than my apartment, even a framing dept! I actually think all these additions are good, but I just wonder how all this happened under my nose.

Batik fabric!

I guess this craft revival really did happen, huh? Or is it really just the supersize trend?

The fabrics. Oh, how I love thee! I had tears in my eyes when I saw at least 5 or 6 shelves devoted to batiks! (but, where were you when I needed you?) After a quick walk through the $1/yard aisle, I was already pushing my hand-held basket (what was I thinking, right?) along the ground with my foot and stacking it with bolt after bolt of dirt-cheap fabric. I was even sweating! When I got to the cutting counter, I actually felt bad for people waiting behind me. At least they got to stare at all my pretty fabric. :)

I'm seeing lots of skirts and totes and pouches and maybe even a hat or two...

I think this one is my favorite and at $1/yd., you can't go wrong!

In other sewing news, I saw on YaiAnn's blog that Amy Butler is finally selling the bag I mentioned a few months back - but only as a premade item (for $112!), no pattern. Grrr. So bummed, but I'm gonna strike back and make my own pattern. I'd be happy if it's half as cute!

I think a nice, classy skirt for work...

As for my pile 'o WIPs flashed on my last post, I'm dutifully working on each and every one of them and making some decent progress. I'm officially captivated by Demi, which thrills me. I was worried its complexity would become a headache for me.

Hopefully I'll have something finished to report soon!